Falling in Love Literally
by Mikauzoran
Summary: When Hakuba goes down to the station to give his statement, he never expects to end up flat on his back, looking up at the cutest girl he's ever seen. Can he even find Sera again, and, if he does, will he be able to convince her to stop thinking about the past and instead focus on a possible future with him?
1. Falling

Mikau: Hello there! Welcome old friends and newcomers alike! I expect we'll be seeing some new faces since this is completely different from what I usually write. (See! I CAN write straight pairings after all!) Anyway, thank you very much for picking this up! I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I think I've said this before, but if I owned it, I'd make sure that Robo Kaito and the Green Dream chapters made it into the MK 1412 anime. Those are really some of my favorites. As it stands, all I can do is cross my fingers and hold my breath.

…

Chapter One: Falling

Saguru had been planning on spending the evening working on cold cases in his room, but a funny thing happened. Superintendent Hakuba had come home and poked his head into his son's room—an extremely rare occurrence.

"Good afternoon, Saguru. I'm home. Did you not have school today?" the elder Hakuba awkwardly greeted.

Saguru nearly jumped at the sudden break in the silence in what he had thought to be an empty house. At his father's voice, Saguru turned around in his desk chair and stood to greet him. "Welcome home, Father. Actually, today is Sunday, so there wasn't any class."

"Oh. Well…" Hakuba Senior shifted uncomfortably. "What did you do today?"

Saguru rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Were they seriously going to do this? Actually have a normal conversation? "Just…some work. I made some real headway on a couple different cases. How was your day at work, Father?"

Hakuba Akihiko frowned. "Are your friends busy today? Why didn't you go out with them?"

Saguru was left without a satisfactory answer to give. How could he tell his father that he didn't exactly have friends that he could do something like that with? He supposed that he could make plans with Kuroba—they had become close recently—or he could tag along with Nakamori Aoko's group, but… "I…felt like getting some work done, is all." A little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone.

The frowned deepened. "Saguru, a young man your age should be out and about, having fun and meeting people. You've got the rest of your life to work. Go. There's still plenty of the day left. Go enjoy it," he demanded, motioning for Saguru to leave.

"B-But—"

"—No buts." Akihiko was having none of it. "Go have fun."

"R-Right," Saguru conceded, grabbing a light jacket and bowing as he passed his father in the doorway. "Thank you, Sir."

Checking his pocket watch and seeing that he had plenty of time, Saguru started to head to Beika University's library, but he ran into a holdup at a convenience store on the way and ended up down at the police station, giving his statement about how he had judo thrown the culprit into a wall when the robber had threatened the woman with a small child in line ahead of Saguru.

After he'd given his testimony, Saguru was just coming out of the conference room and heading down the hall to the exit when a door opened outward, beaming him right in the face and laying him out flat on the floor.

"Geez, I am _so_ sorry!" the offending party gushed as soon as they noticed that they had taken someone out. "I wasn't watching where I was going at all. You okay?"

Saguru looked up and was met with the most beautiful pair of olive green eyes he had ever seen. They were so mesmerizing that he completely forgot to respond and instead sat there stupidly staring.

Meanwhile, Sera Masumi gazed at the foreign-looking boy in worry. "Are you okay?" she switched to English. "You didn't hit your head, did ya?"

When the blonde still didn't respond, she began to panic. "Geez. Don't move, okay? Hold still." Sera knelt down and cupped Saguru's cheek, looking him over and trying to assess the damage.

Saguru froze, brain absolutely melting at her touch.

"Your pupils seem to be dilated, and your face is really turning red from when the door hit you, but…shoot. What were the signs of a concussion again? Geez…I'll…I'll text my brother!" She stood and rushed to extract her phone from her back pocket, but then she hesitated. "Or maybe I should call an ambulance?"

"N-Neither," Saguru, finally coming to his senses and finding his voice, assured. He got to his feet and attempted to downplay his shame. Perhaps if he brushed it off, she would as well? "Sorry for alarming you, Miss. I was just a little stunned, got the air knocked out of me is all. As you can see, I'm perfectly well."

"Oh, good!" Sera chuckled in relief, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment. "Like I said before, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't of thrown open the door like that."

"Not at all," Saguru laughed right along with her. "I wasn't looking where I was going either. Let's just both be more careful next time."

"Yeah," she agreed with a lovely, impish smile. "…Well, I'm really glad you're okay."

Saguru was just about to introduce himself when the phone that was still out in Sera's hand began to ring.

"Sorry again," she finished her conversation with him and turned to go before answering the call. "Hey there! Sonoko-chan!"

At that point, there was nothing he could do short of follow her, but she was heading the opposite way, further into the station while he should, by all means, be on his way out as he had no further legitimate business there that day. It would have been rude to interrupt her phone conversation at that time, and so he watched her walk away with a longing expression on his face.

As one of the officers walked past, he thought to ask, "Excuse me, could you tell me who that girl was? The girl in the fedora? Do you know her name?"

The cop looked and then shook his head and shrugged. "No. I'm sorry. I don't. All I know is she's some kind of amateur detective. She comes in from time to time to give her statement about crimes she witnessed and helped to solve."

As the officer walked away, Saguru pursed his lips and tried to come up with a plan of action. He could always hang around the front of the station and wait for her to come out, but that might draw police suspicion and alarm the girl herself. The last thing he wanted to do was come off looking like some kind of weirdo stalker. It wouldn't do to ask around the station at this point in time either. He'd only be getting in the police's way seeing as they were all busy with very important work on this short-staffed Sunday.

That left him with the option to retreat and regroup for the time being. It wasn't as if she would disappear off of the face of the earth if he didn't get her name right here and now. He knew she hung around Beika, and he knew she occasionally solved crimes with the Beika PD. He was a detective, and that was enough to go on. He _would_ find her.

Unfortunately, once he finally got to the university library and did an extensive variety of internet searches, he came up empty-handed. He scoured the news articles for the day of crimes committed in Beika, hoping he would find some mention of his mystery girl, but he had no luck there either. It had been a longshot in the first place anyway. Saguru went home discouraged.

The following day, he resolved to go back to the police station after school and make a nuisance of himself until he got her name. He was saved some of the trouble, however, when a thought occurred to him as he stared at the back of Kuroba Kaito's head during pre-calc that Monday morning.

"Kuroba," he breeched the subject tentatively during the lunch break. "You're familiar with the detectives of Beika, are you not?"

Kaito's eyes narrowed, and he looked up skeptically at the blonde, his tone borderline offended. "_Nooo_. What's that supposed to mean? I mean, why _would_ I be?" Kaito snorted.

"Because you're…" Saguru started to reply automatically but then trailed off. "Right. Sorry. Look," he sighed. "I'm looking for someone. A girl." He could feel himself blushing even as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. "I ran into her at the police HQ in Beika yesterday, but I didn't get her name, and…"

Kaito's eyes widened as he came to understand the situation. "You want me to ask some of my buddies in Beika if they know anything about her. Is that what you're asking me, Hakuba?"

Saguru nodded sheepishly. "If you could please?"

Kaito sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. Okay. But can you give me a little more info on her? A description?"

"Gorgeous," Saguru started out, but, upon receiving an eye roll from Kaito, amended, "A little taller than average for a woman with short brown hair and the most beautiful mossy green eyes you have ever seen. Apparently she's some kind of amateur detective in Beika. When I saw her, she was wearing a fedora and a brown leather jacket with a fuzzy cream collar. Does that help at all?"

"Sera Masumi. Teitan High School, class 3-B," Kaito groaned, knowing the girl in question all too well. "Man, you've got a crush on _her_ of all people?" Kaito scoffed. "Dude, she's scary! She's got a super painful flying kick. She does, like, Jeet Kune Do or something."

"You _know_ her?!" Saguru gasped, sensing an opportunity. "Could you introduce me?!"

Kaito grimaced. "Sorry. We only met once very briefly, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant encounter for either of us. I doubt she'd recognize me."

With a sigh, Saguru relented. "Very well. Thank you for your help, though, Kuroba. I really do appreciate it."

That day Saguru left early so as to make it over to Beika in time for school to let out.

As the students of Teitan gathered their things, a buzz began to echo through the school about a cute foreign boy waiting by the gate.

"I wonder who he's here to confess to," Sonoko chortled, always a sucker for the latest gossip. "I hear he's wearing an Ekoda High uniform. That's a good twenty minutes from here."

Finally giving in to curiosity, Ran looked out the window to see if she could sneak a peek at this mysterious visitor. Upon seeing him, she blinked in surprise. "That's Hakuba-kun," she reported, and suddenly there was a group of people crowding her, demanding the juicy details.

"He's the high school detective that chases the Kaitou Kid whenever he's in the country. I've met him before, and he's very nice, super smart." Ran shrugged, unable to supply much more than that.

Just then, one of the boys from 3-A came running down the hall and skidded to a stop in front of the 3-B classroom. "Sera Masumi-san, Hakuba Saguru's here to see you!" he announced, and the entire classroom exploded in excited chatter.

Meanwhile, the lady in question blinked in confusion. "Me?"

"Sera-san!" Sonoko squealed. "It's your first confession!"

"Do you know Hakuba-kun, Sera-san?" Ran asked as she grabbed her bag.

"I don't think so." Sera hummed in thought as she went to the window and looked out at the boy by the gate.

She froze as she recognized the boy from the preceding day.

"Ggk," she choked. "I hate to break it to you, Sonoko-chan, but rather than ask me out, I think he's here to call me out. I kind of hit him in the face and knocked him flat with a door while I was at the Tokyo PD's HQ yesterday."

"How romantic!" Sonoko swooned. "You literally swept him off his feet, and he literally fell in love!"

Sera smiled through a frown at her friend's ridiculousness. "Somehow I doubt it."

"Goodness!" Ran chimed in. "Was he okay?"

"I think so." Sera chewed on her lip as she looked down at a very anxious Saguru. "I mean…he was a little rattled at first, but he got up okay, and he said he was fine, so…and then I got that call from you, Sonoko-chan, and I had to go, but…man…he must be pretty angry if he tracked me down to call me out after school."

Ran pursed her lips. "That doesn't sound like Hakuba-kun, though. Well, how about Sonoko and I go with you to see what he wants?"

"Thanks, Ran-chan!" Sera chuckled, brightening up.

They all packed up and went down to the front gate together. Saguru happened to turn and look just as they approached, and when he saw Sera, his face turned red and he forced himself to stand up a little straighter. He took a deep breath to prepare himself.

Sera considered his stance and expression and decided that it didn't look like he was here to challenge her to mortal combat.

At the same time Sonoko was giggling madly and whispering embarrassing, borderline inappropriate things, so Ran took her best friend by the arm and dragged Sonoko off, calling out to Sera that they would see her but to call them later that night.

A little confused as to why her friends were abandoning her, Sera frowned, but she didn't have too much time to contemplate the situation because as soon as she turned back around, she came face to face with Hakuba Saguru.

"H-Hey," she laughed nervously, raising her hand in a casual greeting. She wasn't sure what to expect. "You're from yesterday. How are ya doin'? I mean…how are ya feeling?"

"J-Just fine, thank you," Saguru greeted, equally if not more nervous. "And yes. I'm sorry. I didn't get to properly introduce myself yesterday, but I'm Hakuba Saguru—eighteen years old, blood type A, a Virgo. Um…I work with Division Two over in Ekoda—with the Kaitou Kid Taskforce. I heard you were a detective too, so—"

"—So you work trying to catch that perverted bastard, do you?" Sera growled, still seeing red from that outrageous heist several months ago. She still owed Kid a good punch in the face.

Saguru tensed at the overt animosity towards Kid, the likes of which he hadn't seen in anyone outside of the Nakamori family. "Uh…yes. Yes, I do." Something told him not to ask if he knew what was good for him. "Er…so I heard you were also a detective, and I was wondering…maybe…would you want to go get some coffee with me and chat for a bit? One hardly ever meets another high school detective, so…I had hoped we might discuss work, the difficulties of not being taken seriously by our elders, and other such things. I-If you have time, that is…Sera-san, isn't it?"

Sera blinked, realizing that in her unresolved rage against Kid, she had yet to properly introduce herself. "Oh! Yeah, yeah. Sera Masumi, amateur sleuth. Nice to meet you, Hakuba-kun! And sure, I'd love to grab a cup of coffee with you and shoot the breeze a little. Hey, drinks are on me."

"No, I could never let a lady pay," Saguru politely refused. "Please. Allow me to treat you."

"Seriously," she insisted. "I feel really bad about yesterday. Let me buy to make up for taking you out with that door."

"How about we go Dutch this time?" Saguru compromised.

Sera shrugged with a chuckle. "The man drives a hard bargain. Fine. Fifty-fifty it is. Was there any place in particular that you wanted to go?"

"I didn't have a place in mind really," Saguru admitted, starting to turn scarlet anew. "Was there a café that you prefer, Sera-san?"

Her fern green eyes lit up, and a bright grin spread across her race from one ear to the other. "Poirot Café!" she announced. "That's the café that's just below the place Ran-chan and another good friend of mine live. Wanna go there? It's not too far away."

"Of course. Again, I really have no preference, so wherever you like is fine with me." Saguru paused as a thought occurred to him. He hadn't specifically asked her on a quote unquote "date", so there was still the possibility that they were not on the same page. Better to ask and find out if she were available before he got his hopes up. "Only…I'm sorry. You don't have a boyfriend or anything that's going to challenge me to a duel or something for asking you to coffee, do you?"

"Nah," she laughed. "I fight my own duels. Let's go. They've got really awesome pastries there too!"

Saguru grinned and allowed himself to be pulled along. He was finally able to let go of the breath he had been holding since arriving at Teitan that day, and now he couldn't help but rejoice at his good luck: not only was Sera Masumi absolutely beautiful, she was also smart and witty. If she could be persuaded into having feelings for him, he would have hit the jackpot.

But for now, all he had to do was enjoy his first mini "date" of sorts with Sera and attempt to make a good impression.

…

Mikau: Thanks so much for reading, guys! I hope you enjoyed it. I'm actually really dying to know what you think. How was it honestly? If you could take a minute and leave a review, I'd be really grateful. I've never written this pairing before (I've never written Sera before!), so I'd adore some feedback, especially if you could tell me if you think Sera turned out alright. If you have any tips or advice or even anything you think I actually did a good job on, I'd be glad to hear it. Also, if you'd be interested in me continuing, definitely let me know, otherwise…well, I've got plenty of KaiShin and HakuKai to write that people actually want to read, so…do let me know if you like this pairing and want to see more. Thanks again, guys!


	2. KY (Kuuki Yomenai)

Mikau: Hello again! Thanks so much for your support, guys! I'm surprised, but so glad that so many of you enjoyed this pairing and wanted me to continue, so continue I shall. I'm going to have to rewatch all the episodes with Sera in them. I don't know if I really have a firm grasp on her character. She came out really carefree, happy-go-lucky, and a little on the dense when it comes to romance side. Let me know what you think! Also, thanks so much to all my reviewers from last time: LilianRosas24, Bunnyz-chan, GeekyGenius, Kimmiko T, dogfish44, neonquincy1217, and DemeterCat200!

In response to DemeterCat's question of why Hakuba didn't think Sera was a boy at first, in episode 479 with the Lavender Mansion, doesn't Hakuba not seem surprised when the girl representing the south turns out to be a girl when everyone else thought she was a boy? Or am I remembering that wrong? It's been a while. I also think he'd develop some kind of radar what with Kaito/Kid crossdressing a lot. Anyway, that was my thought process when I was planning things out. On with the show!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be more episodes with Hakuba. I'd love to do an episode where we see a Kid heist or a case from his point of view.

…

Chapter Two: KY (Kuuki Yomenai)

It had been about two months now since Saguru and Sera had begun to meet for coffee. They'd slowly progressed to lunch outings on the weekends, and Saguru had recently been entertaining the idea of asking her to go see a film with him, but just couldn't seem to muster the courage.

In those same two months, Saguru had come to be very certain of his own feelings towards Sera. He wouldn't go so far as to call it love yet, but he was very fond of her and definitely interested in giving something of a romantic nature a try.

She dazzled him with her child-like enthusiasm and bubbly, fun-loving personality. Her smile, pure and radiant, made his heart flutter, and, what's more, she made him feel calm and content. She made him smile and laugh…but he still wasn't sure that she saw him as anything more than a good friend.

At times, he wasn't sure he wanted to know how she really felt about him. He was comfortable and happy with the way things were now, and he was frankly scared to mess things up, afraid of being rejected.

At the same time, it was beginning to get a little frustrating on Saguru's end of things. When they walked together, his hand itched to reach out and hold hers. When loose strands of hair fell across her face, he wanted nothing more than to brush them away with the back of his hand and tuck them behind her ear like he'd seen in the movies. When they said their goodbyes and parted ways in her hotel lobby, he yearned to lean in and kiss her on the cheek.

There were times when he wanted to tell her that she was cute, but he got tongue-tied. Other times he wished he could let her know that she was beautiful, but his lips wouldn't move, his mouth refusing to form the syllables. He lamented his inability to tell her how he felt even as he constantly pined for more out of their relationship.

But as it stood, Saguru and Sera were just friends, and today they were having a very nice lunch at a little café in Beika called Christie's that specialized mostly in sweets but offered a variety of cuisines.

Today Saguru was having spinach and artichoke quiche with a side salad and herbal tea while Sera was enjoying wings slathered in hot sauce.

"I can't see how you can stand to eat those things. They'll burn the taste buds right off of your tongue," Saguru snickered softly as he watched her gleefully lick the sauce off of her fingers.

"'Cause they're delicious!" she chuckled. "I've always loved spicy stuff."

"Did you know that your taste receptors register 'spicy' as 'pain'?" Saguru quipped with a smirk.

Sera smiled broadly. "Then I must be a masochist, 'cause I _love_ it!"

Saguru could feel himself blushing, but he shook his head and smiled. "You're ridiculous. Now where were we?"

"I'd just told you that I was afraid of jellyfish," Sera informed.

Saguru nodded. "So it's your turn. Go ahead. Ask me anything."

"What did you want to be when you grew up when you were little?" she inquired before picking up another wing and biting into it like a wild animal. Somehow even that was cute.

"You mean before Sherlock Holmes?" Saguru chuckled. "…Don't laugh, but when I was really little—about three or four, before I learned to read—I wanted to be Batman."

She raised an eyebrow at him as she finished swallowing. "Why Batman?" It wasn't asked in an unkind way at all as others might have said it. She was merely curious.

He reached across the table and used a napkin to wipe the smudge of hot sauce from her cheek. "Because," he chuckled. "I thought myself to be very much like Bruce Wane. I was extremely wealthy, had no parental guidance to speak of besides my loyal governess, and wanted to change the world, save people from the bad guys. I always thought that I would use my enormous wealth to construct a subterranean base of operations along with a plethora of useful gadgets to aid me in my quest for justice."

She listened with interest, and when he came to a stop, she asked, "And what were you going to call yourself? Did you have a name picked out?"

Saguru blushed, looking down at his quiche in embarrassment. "Libra."

She nodded, looking impressed. "I see. Because of the scales and the court system and justice. That's pretty clever for a four year-old. You were super ambitious and waaay too serious back then too, weren't you?"

"I'll take the ambitious part as a compliment, but if I am too serious, I blame it on my upbringing," he replied, poking at the cucumber slice in his salad and wondering if there might not be something to Kuroba's claims that Saguru needed to lighten up at times.

"I guess you didn't get to just be a kid, huh?" she broke into his thoughts softly. "I mean…from what you told me about your family situation and growing up…you didn't get to run around and yell and hang from trees like I did. It's not really your fault that you didn't get to play enough. Maybe you should play more now to make up for it."

Saguru grimaced. "You sound like my best friend."

"That Kuroba guy?" Sera's eyes lit up at the mention of the trickster. "You know, I'd really like to meet him. I think we'd really hit it off."

"I fear that you would," Saguru sighed.

"Can we maybe all three go see a movie together and then hang out afterwards or something?" she asked innocently, barely able to conceal her eagerness.

Saguru's ears pricked up. Movie? And then hanging out? Like a date? …With Kuroba as a third wheel, but…he supposed that he had to start somewhere. "Actually, that sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll have to see if I can set something up with him; I'm sure he'd love to meet you as well."

"Yes!" she giggled, celebrating with a fist pump. "Just let me know. Or you can give him my number if it's easier to talk and plan it out that way…. So…your turn. Ask me anything," she challenged.

He bit his lip and looked down into his tea. "Do you…" He debated changing the question at the last minute, but, in the end, he decided that he wanted to know. "Is there anyone that you like right now?"

Sera blinked, stopping with a wing halfway to her mouth. She set it down and looked out the window as she hummed pensively.

Saguru tried to breathe normally and not chew through his bottom lip as he waited for her response.

"I'm not sure," she finally replied with a far-off look in her eyes. "It was a long time ago that I met this guy—amazing detective—and he really inspired me to be a detective too. I've kind of thought of him as a mentor all this time, and…whenever I was struggling or thinking about quitting, I used to think of the stuff he said to me, and it really encouraged me and convinced me to keep going. I've thought about him a lot over the years, and, I think, somewhere in my mind along the way some things got twisted around and I maybe…maybe started to think of him as more than just a sempai. I don't know if I really _like him_ like him or not, but…we met again a little less than a year ago, and it doesn't look like he remembers me, even though he's had such a big impact on my life." She slowly let out a sigh before refreshing the smile on her face and turning to grin at Saguru once more. "Yeah. I don't know. I guess that's what they mean when they say a maiden's heart is a complex thing."

Saguru's brow furrowed, and a troubled expression made itself at home on his face. "Sera-san…forgive me for overstepping my boundaries, but…if that man doesn't even remember you, perhaps you shouldn't waste your time on him. Besides, he can't be all that great if he can't see what a treasure you are." Saguru blushed and looked back down at the remainder of his lunch. "That's just my humble opinion on the matter, though."

She grinned even wider and laughed softly. "Thanks for the pep talk, Haku-chan. I appreciate you giving your advice. And I think you're right. It would probably only be more trouble than it's worth putting myself out there when he's already got someone else in his heart. You're such a great friend, Haku-chan."

A great friend? _Friend_?! He'd just told her that she was a treasure, and she'd responded that he was a good friend?! The word felt like an uppercut to the solar plexus. It was so sudden and unexpected…and unbelievably painful. All hope was truly lost.

"Of course. Not at all," he forced himself to reply. "I'm glad that you value my friendship because I certainly…I feel the same way. You're a good friend to me too, Sera-san."

She chuckled in a self-satisfied manner and went back to tearing the meat off of the tiny chicken bones like a cute little uncivilized beast. "Is it my turn to ask a question now?"

"Before that…" Saguru bit his lip, debating for a minute before he decided that he _had_ to know. "Could you tell me…I mean, only if you feel comfortable…but…can you tell me who this boy you may or may not like is? What his name is?" What he did for a living? What school he went to? His address so that Saguru could drop in later and give the guy a piece of his mind?

Sera nodded. "Yeah. His name is…well…you'd know him as Edogawa Conan." She shrugged.

Saguru's mouth nearly fell open, and, if he had been holding anything, he would have dropped it. "E-Edogawa…Conan?"

She nodded once more, enthusiastically. "Yeah. Well…okay, maybe that seems weird to you because you don't know…you don't know him very well, but…seriously, I promise I'm not a weirdo or anything. He may look like a kid, but he's wicked smart and an inspiring detective, so… You just have to look past what you can see on the outside sometimes."

"Right," Saguru mumbled, sternly instructing himself mentally not to cry.

This was the worst day ever. Not only did she only think of him as a friend, but also his love rival was Edogawa Conan. If that was what he was up against, he had no idea how he was going to surpass the boy because he had no idea in what criteria he himself was lacking.

Was Saguru too tall? Did she just like dramatically younger men? Was it the glasses?! Because if it was the glasses, Saguru had reading glasses that he could start wearing all the time. Maybe it was because Edogawa was a prodigy. Saguru had been a prodigy, and he was still brilliant, thank you very much. Perhaps if he took an IQ test and showed her his scores? Or maybe he needed to demonstrate his intellect in practical, everyday situations. But wasn't he already doing that? Maybe it really was because Edogawa was a good detective. The boy tried to downplay his abilities in front of others, but Saguru could see it when Conan didn't know anyone else was watching. Edogawa Conan really was a remarkable detective. Could Saguru ever hope to match the child's murder-solving talent with his own skill in bringing down thieves and defrauders? Based on his current scorecard with Kid, that was a resounding "no".

With an almost inaudible sigh, Saguru took a sip of his tea.

Completely missing the sudden plunge in her companion's mood, Sera continued on in her usual bubbly fashion. "My turn! Haku-chan, is there anyone that _you_ like right now?"

He looked up at her and blinked.

She smiled innocently at him—olive eyes sparkling, cheeks rosy, and lips stained with hot sauce.

He could tell that she had been living away from Japan for a while; she'd lost that innate telepathy that most Japanese had, the ability to read the situation and the people around her and then act accordingly. Still, even that was endearing…if not utterly frustrating.

He smiled dolefully and replied looking her straight in the eye. "Yes. I do have someone…even though they don't feel the same way about me."

Her smile faded. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "It's alright. I'm not giving up, so it's not like it's over and done with yet. The last thing that I want is for you to feel sorry for me."

She nodded, trying to put a smile back on her face for him, but her brow still remained slightly furrowed in concern. "So…what kind of person are they? What are they like?"

"Wonderful," he shrugged and stated simply. "They make me laugh and smile. They're very witty and an excellent conversationalist, very amusing to listen to with fantastic stories. They smile a lot, and it's this absolutely radiant grin—you know, the kind of smile that's infectious, one that warms you up even if you're drenched from walking in the rain." He smiled and blushed, having to look away as he continued. "What else? Kind. Light-hearted and very fun-loving. A little impish at times but well-meaning. Just…a good, sweet person that wants to do what they can to make this world a better place, so…"

"Is it Kuroba?" she asked with the most serious of expressions.

Saguru nearly fell out of his chair. "What?! NO! Absolutely not! Whatever gave you that idea?!"

She shrugged. "Well, you said that they were funny and impish and fun-loving, but that they were a good person and made other people smile. It sounds a lot like Kuroba. I mean…I've never actually met the guy in person, but…you talk about him a lot, and that's the kind of person I pictured, so… Are you sure it's not Kuroba?"

"I'm _positive_!" he nearly shrieked. "I like _women_! I'm not gay!"

Worst day _ever_.

"But it'd be okay if you were." She shrugged, obviously having no personal stake in his sexual orientation.

"But I'm _NOT_," he stressed, now strongly fighting the urge not to hang himself with his tie right then and there to avoid the shame and indignity of having to defend his sexual preferences in public.

"But if you were, that'd be okay. I mean, I'd still be your friend," she stated plainly. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with being gay, so even if you were…"

"You know what? You're absolutely right," he agreed out of desperation. "If I were, that is, but I'm _not_."

"You know, this reminds me of a song from a musical I saw in Chicago a few years ago called Avenue Q," she chuckled. "Have you ever seen that?"

Saguru was about ready to bury his face in his hands and cry right then and there. "Regrettably, yes. A cousin of mine dragged me to see it. Bits of it were quite humorous, but there were other parts that were just too bawdy for my tastes."

"So…it's not Kuroba?" Sera asked once more, completely serious.

Saguru took a deep breath, determined to end this once and for all. "No. It's you."

She looked at him with surprise written into each of her facial features for a good ten seconds or so.

For a moment Saguru thought that maybe she was considering it. The optimistic part of himself whispered that perhaps she was weighing her options, deciding to forget about Edogawa Conan and instead try a romance with Saguru.

But then she started laughing, and his heart sank. It felt like someone had punched a hole in his lung. He couldn't breathe.

"That's a good one, Haku-chan," Sera chuckled, going back to her lunch. "See? You can be funny when you try! Alright, back on topic. It's your turn. Ask me anything."

"Actually," he replied softly, afraid his voice would crack. "I'm sorry. I forgot about something I have to do, so…here's for lunch." He set down two thousand yen on the table as he stood and pulled on his jacket. "I'll see you later."

"O-Oh?" She blinked in surprise at his sudden departure. "Oh. Well…thanks. I'll see you later, Haku-chan! Let me know when Kuroba's able to hang out, okay?"

He nodded, unable to say any more as he walked as fast as he possibly could without seeming suspicious or unnatural out of that little restaurant. He could feel actual shards of his broken heart rattling around inside of his chest, and he just needed to get away.

…

Mikau: Now you might be asking yourself why in all of my stories the characters' love lives are never simple, why they have to suffer before they get a happy ending. My response is that I'm probably a closet sadist and I just don't know it yet, so I enjoy torturing the poor darlings. But, no, the catharsis at the end is nice, don't you think? Hopefully you enjoy the emotional roller coaster as well. Thanks so much for reading, guys! See you next time!


	3. Retreat

Mikau: Welcome back! Thanks for joining me once again! Updates on this are happening pretty quickly because this is basically what I'm working on for my belated NaNoWriMo. It's just a matter of getting it satisfactorily edited once the draft is done. ^.^; Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to send in their thoughts and comments! Thanks to the reviewers from last chapter: Orange04, Bunnyz-chan, Kimmiko T, neonquincy1217, GeekyGenius, Katherine Apollo Karma, and dogfish44! I don't know if it does any good to say this here, but if you like HakuKaiShin or any permutation of that, I've got a new one-shot called Healing Heartbreak for the Holidays out today too, so take a look if you're interested. And now on to the main event!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the Tokyo PD would have a Christmas Eve/New Year's Eve party. Lots of fun options and tons of potential there.

…

Chapter Three: Retreat

Kaito hadn't expected Hakuba to show up on his doorstep that Sunday afternoon looking like beef stew that someone had left sitting out in the sun for a couple of days. The blonde looked like he'd gotten jumped by some vampire that'd drained him within an inch of his life. Saguru was pale and muttering incoherently, looking like it was taking all of his will power just to keep from bursting into tears as he stood there on Kaito's porch.

Kaito stared dumbstruck at the detective for a grand total of five seconds before he took his friend by the arm and gently tugged him inside. "Here. I'll hang up your coat. Just slip off your shoes and head straight back into the living room. You can lie down on the couch. Make yourself comfortable, and I'll bring in some tea and some tissues in just a sec."

Saguru nodded, doing just as Kaito had suggested. He curled up among the throw pillows and trembled, trying to hold in the ugly sobs as tears poured down his cheeks.

Kaito came in a minute later with the promised items. He pulled a tissue out himself and dabbed at Hakuba's face, but it was like trying to patch up a severed limb with a Band-Aid. Kaito's puny tissue did nothing to stem the flow of Saguru's torrential bout of tears.

Kaito sighed, sitting down on the floor at the foot of the couch with his back pressed up against it, not facing Saguru in order to give the guy a little privacy while still being there for him. "You know, I have breakdowns sometimes too, and I find it helpful to scream or wail or what have ya into the throw pillows. They're super sound proof, so…Haku-chan, go ahead and cry. Just let it out already. I'm the only one here, and I'm not judging you."

Saguru hugged one of the throw pillows to his chest and bawled into it for a good forty-five minutes. All the while, Kaito sat with him, muttering words of encouragement and consolation, patting his friend reassuringly on the arm.

When Saguru had finally cried himself out, he rolled over onto his other side so that he faced Kaito's back.

"Feel better?" Kaito inquired softly.

"Just exhausted," Saguru muttered.

"Wanna talk about it…or did you just want to bake cookies and play Smash Brothers and forget about it?" Kaito laid out the options. "You can talk to me, you know. We've been doing the friends thing for almost two years now, and I hope you've realized that by now?"

"I've had the worst day," Saguru explained, reaching out for the tea that had been set aside for him. It had long grown cold.

Kaito offered to reheat it, but Saguru was having none of it, insisting that it was his own fault for letting it sit like that, despite Kaito's assurances otherwise.

"It was a horrible day," Saguru reiterated. "And no one's at home because Baaya's gone with Father on that business trip for the conference, and I didn't want to be alone, so if you don't mind—"

"—Haku-chan, I don't mind at all so long as you're not busting down my door with a search warrant."

"Then…could we perhaps talk…and then bake cookies and play games?" Saguru inquired in a hopeful tone.

"Absolutely," Kaito assured, spinning around to face his friend. "…So…I'm guessing this has something to do with a certain pretty female detective?"

Saguru closed his eyes and nodded, throwing an arm over his face. "We were playing that game that I told you about where we take turns asking questions, and…lately I just can't stand it anymore. I like her a _lot_, and I feel like if I don't do something soon with these feelings, nothing is ever going to come of it, so…I asked her if there was anyone she liked right now."

Kaito shifted, resituating himself as he anxiously waited for Saguru to continue. "_And_?" Kaito demanded after Hakuba's pregnant pause became (in Kaito's opinion) too long and drawn out.

"Edogawa sodding Conan," Saguru hissed.

Kaito blinked. "Come again?"

"Edogawa Conan," Saguru huffed. "She told me that they met a few years ago and that he inspired her to actually go after her dream of becoming a detective. She said that she looks upon him as some kind of mentor, and her memories of him have been encouraging her to keep going over the years. Apparently they met again recently, and he doesn't remember her, but now she thinks that somewhere along the line she started having feelings for him, but she's not sure," he growled.

"I can see why you'd be upset," Kaito replied quietly, honestly in shock. But then a thought occurred to him. "Wait. You said that they met several years ago?" But several years ago, "Edogawa Conan" had not existed.

"Yes," Saguru sighed. "And now I don't know what to think. Honestly, I feel like such a failure, losing out to a little kid, but…maybe it's not just my body. Maybe it's my intellect as well that pales in comparison to his. She did say that you had to look past Conan-kun's outer appearance."

"S-She knows…" Kaito muttered in surprise as the pieces came together.

"What does she know?" Saguru grumbled.

"Nothing if she's passing over a stud like you for that shrimp," Kaito improvised. "What happened after that?"

Saguru groaned, sitting up and hugging his knees to his chest. "And then she asked me if there was someone _I_ liked, and when I said 'yes', she automatically assumed it was _you_, and then we had a serious discussion about my sexual orientation."

Kaito's mouth dropped open. "Geez…" He looked at his friend in deep pity. "And how did that end?"

Saguru rested his head on his knees, hiding his face in his arms as he began to cry again. "I told her that I liked her, and she started laughing because she thought I was joking," Saguru whispered.

Kaito climbed up on the couch next to Saguru and threw an arm around his friend. "I'm sorry, Haku-chan," he muttered in response, resting his head on Saguru's shoulder.

They sat like that for a little while while Saguru worked on regaining his composure.

When Saguru finally lifted his head to wipe away the tears, he mumbled, "Kuroba, what am I ever going to do?"

"I'd get away from her for a while," Kaito advised, sitting up and giving Saguru's arm a firm squeeze. "Give yourself some space to get your feet back underneath you. Give her the silent treatment for a few weeks, and then go back at her full-force. For now I think you should take a break from her and hang out with me a little, though. You've been neglecting me ever since you fell in love with Sera-chan, Haku-chan, and it's not fair," Kaito pouted teasingly.

Saguru forced himself to smile at the magician. "Thank you, Kaito. I think you're right. I think I do need to rest up a little bit. Maybe…maybe I'll get lucky and she'll miss me or something…. Enough of this. Let's make cookies, shall we?"

"That's the spirit!" Kaito cheered, popping up off of the couch and taking Saguru by the arm, pulling Saguru along after him towards the kitchen at the back of the house. "You okay, though, Haku-chan?"

Saguru shrugged. "Who knows? I kind of feel like I've been put through a trash compactor, but…thanks for being there for me, Kuroba."

Kaito smirked in response. "It's what friends do. Don't worry. We'll get this all straightened out eventually, and you two lovebirds will be making goo-goo eyes at each other before New Year's."

"One can only hope," Saguru sighed, going to the fridge to fetch the eggs.

…

Meanwhile, across town, Sera Masumi was kind of getting the impression that she'd done something wrong.

Hakuba had left so suddenly, and he hadn't looked or sounded right. She had a sinking feeling that she'd hurt his feelings with all of the teasing. She had gone a little too far with the whole gay thing, hadn't she? She should have just stopped pressing the issue after he'd first denied having a thing for Kuroba. But Sera had been so sure what with the way that Hakuba talked about the magician. Judging by Hakuba's stories about Kuroba, the detective and the magician had to be incredibly close.

Maybe Masumi had just misread it, but there always seemed to be this kind of affection in Hakuba's eyes and tone whenever he spoke about Kuroba Kaito. Maybe it was more of a brotherly type love than any kind of romantic inclination? Sera couldn't be certain, but now she was really wishing that she'd just dropped it, because now she was pretty sure that she'd hurt one of her best friends' feelings.

Sera sighed and wiped the hot sauce off of her hands and onto a napkin. For some reason the wings didn't taste very good anymore. It was probably because of the sour taste in her mouth from what she had done. The question was: how to patch things up with Haku-chan so that her food would return to an appetizing state? Because it was such a waste to leave the wings uneaten. They were one of her favorite foods from her time abroad, but you could hardly ever find them in Japan because the idea of picking up a piece of meat slathered in sauce with your hands and then tearing the flesh from the bone with your teeth just really put most Japanese people off for some reason.

…But, all joking aside, more than the whole food deal, she valued her friendship with Hakuba, and the thought that she had hurt him made her feel terribly guilty…incredibly ill. Hakuba was a sweet guy, super smart, and she always had such a good time with him. He'd quickly become one of her favorite people, and if he held a grudge and didn't want to hang out with her anymore…she'd really, really miss him. It wasn't often that you found people like Hakuba Saguru…or, rather, in this case, that people like Hakuba Saguru found you, but…she didn't want to lose her precious friend.

Masumi pulled out her mobile and dialed Hakuba's number. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer. She really didn't blame him. Hakuba was a sensitive guy, and he was probably sore about her poking fun, so, naturally, he wouldn't want to talk to her right away, but she could at least get a preliminary apology out there via text.

"Hey, Haku-chan," she typed out and then paused, biting her lip. What to say?

She typed a couple lines experimentally, but the words didn't sound quite right, so she erased them and started over again. After several false starts and even more editing during the middle, she finally came up with: "Hey, Haku-chan. I just wanted to make sure you were okay since you seemed kind of upset when you left. I wanted to say sorry for giving you such a hard time and refusing to let the whole 'gay' thing drop. I must have really hurt your feelings and your pride as a man, and I'm really sorry. You know me. I say whatever stupid thing pops into my head, and I'm bad at reading the situation. I shouldn't make excuses, though. I'm the one in the wrong here, and I'd like to take you out to dinner to help to make up for it. I understand if you're still mad and/or upset, though. If you need a few days, that's cool. Just let me know if you're able to forgive me, 'cause you're an awesome friend, and I really like spending time with you. Talk to you later."

She felt that the end was a little weak, and the whole thing was entirely too long in the first place, but… She just hoped that her feelings came across.

Sera waited another half an hour or so at the little café, poking at her wings and playing with her food like a sullen five year-old, but neither did her appetite return nor did a reply come from Hakuba, so she packed up, paid, and headed home to the hotel.

"Tadaima," she sighed as she locked the door behind her and then moved further into the common room, tossing her wallet down on the table as she passed.

"Okaerinasai," a small voice replied and then broke into a little fit of coughs.

Masumi smiled at the pale, fair-haired child seated in the little sitting area. She was wrapped in a blanket and had Sera's laptop on her lap.

"Hey. You're up and about today!" the detective observed, going over and taking a seat across the coffee table from her roommate. "How are you feeling?"

"So-so," the child replied in a voice too serious and mature to actually belong to a child. She coughed lightly once more.

"Whatcha doin'? Watching cartoons?" Sera chuckled.

The girl rolled her grey green eyes, refusing to get upset like the child she appeared to be. She did, however, dignify Sera's question with a response, "If you must know, I'm keeping tabs on world news. I feel so out of touch with the world at large when I'm shut up in here all day for days on end."

Sera began to frown. "You know, we could go somewhere, if you want. I wouldn't mind at all, taking you out."

The not-child rolled her eyes once more. "I'm fine here. I'm merely stating the way that things are…. You were out with that boy again, weren't you?"

"You mean Haku-chan? Yeah. He took me to Christie's again, and I got wings." At the mention of her friend, she pulled out her phone and quickly checked to see if he had replied to her text, but there was no such luck.

The seemingly young girl's lips curled into a faint smirk. "Has he properly confessed to you yet?"

"Geez," Sera sighed, turning pastel pink in the cheeks. "Why does everyone ask that? It's like a guy and a girl can't hang out without having a thing for each other. Haku-chan and I are just friends."

"That may be the case now, but you do like him, don't you?"

Sera squirmed in her seat under the intense gaze of those olive eyes. "I mean…he's a sweet guy, but…I've never really thought about him like that."

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed in acute frustration. "Well maybe you should because a young man does not spend all of his time and money taking a girl out to eat just because he thinks she's a good friend. You're probably leading the poor boy on. For such a sharp, astute girl, you're oddly dense at times. You're probably saying and doing all sorts of things that are giving him the wrong idea that you're interested."

Masumi looked down at her hands in her lap, searching her memories and trying to find some kind of evidence that the other woman's words were true, but she could only consider her behavior towards Hakuba as friendly. There hadn't been anything suggestive of feelings that Masumi did not actually have. Furthermore, there was no sign of anything more than the affection one held for a friend on Hakuba's part. The girl was wrong then.

Sera looked back up and shook her head. "Haku-chan can't possibly like me like that. He's already got Kuroba, and, if not, Haku-chan belongs with some elegant, classy lady. I'm no Cinderella to go with his Prince Charming."

"Hmm," the girl hummed, going back to her computer screen. "I wonder how he feels about that."

Sera frowned, getting up. "I've got to get some homework done, so…"

The child didn't protest as the detective left.

Sera sat down to work on her English homework, but she just couldn't concentrate on conjugating verbs with all the other thoughts whirling around in her head. It didn't help that she felt the compulsion to check her phone for messages every five minutes.

She nearly had a heart attack when a text did come, but after all that, it was just Sonoko asking for help with the English homework because Sera was a pro from her time spent abroad. Sera ended up just calling Sonoko and walking her through a couple examples of each type of problem before hanging up and getting the work done herself.

It made her think of conversations she'd had with Hakuba in English. They'd talked together so that both of them could practice and keep their skills sharp.

"It's funny, you know, how you can start to forget words after just a few years of living in Japan," he'd commented. "I confess, it takes some effort to switch back over to English when I've become so accustomed to Japanese, but it usually comes right back after a while."

After homework, Sera made a light dinner for the two of them, and, following cleanup, Sera changed into her pajamas and settled in to watch some TV.

Hakuba still hadn't texted her back.

"Are you expecting a call?" the not-child quietly interrupted Sera's thoughts. "You've been checking your phone incessantly this evening."

"It's nothing," Sera sighed, but she grew increasingly more anxious for some kind of response and, at the same time, irritated at herself for messing things up as the evening wore on.

She went to bed in a bad mood, and, in the morning, she beat her head against her pillow when there was still no reply.

Days slowly crawled by, but there was no word from Hakuba. An entire week passed in silence.

…

Mikau: Okay, so, a note: I'm of the opinion that the mystery girl is probably, one, an APTX victim, and, two, Sera's mom/older sister/aunt or something like that based on the way that she speaks to Sera, so that's the standpoint that I'm writing mystery girl from. So…what did you think? Did you have a favorite line? And, as always, I welcome your opinion of my portrayal of Sera. Thanks for hanging in there with me, guys! See you in a couple days!


	4. Making Decisions at the Crossroads

Mikau: Hello everybody! Happy Tuesday! I'm so tired. ^.^; I finished my paralegal certification program last week, so now I'm just doing my internship and looking for jobs, but…I still feel like I'm really busy for some reason. Anyway, here's the next chapter, and, before I forget, thank you so much to everyone supporting this fic! I'm so pleased that it turned out to be really well-received. I was extremely doubtful at the beginning and completely unsure about how to write Sera, but…this chapter is pretty much all Sera, so we'll see how you think I did with her character. Hopefully I've grown and improved. Well, let me know. ^.^; And thank you so much to my lovely reviewers: Bunnyz-chan, DemeterCat200, Orange04, Guest (Is that you Kimmy? It sounds like you.), Late Bloomers (That would be dogfish. At least, he's the one that informed me of the pairing.), Willysfeather, and GeekyGenius!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, all of the minor characters would have their own episodes detailing their backstories. Because I'm a sucker for backstories, and there are a lot of minor characters (even some main) that haven't really been fleshed out. A lot of the characters are just barebones skeletons. The foundation is in place, but there's not much there. It makes fanfiction writing more fun, but…if I owned it, I'd spend a little more time on the people around Conan in his life.

…

Chapter Four: Making Decisions

at the Crossroads

"Sera-no-neechan. Sera-no-neechan!" Conan called for the fourth time, finally shouting to make himself heard.

Masumi jumped, startled out of her thoughts and back into the present. She looked around in confusion.

She was walking home after school with Ran, Sonoko, and Conan-kun. The other girls were walking slightly ahead, side-by-side while Conan had been trailing behind with space cadet Sera.

She smiled sheepishly down at her shrunken friend. "Oh. Hey. Sorry. I was totally spacing out there, wasn't I? What's up, Conan-kun?"

"Sera-no-neechan, are you okay? You seem really out of it lately, so…did something happen?" Conan inquired gently, kind of worried about his fellow sleuth.

Masumi smiled sadly, looking down at her feet. "I just…you know how I say stupid things sometimes without thinking?"

Conan almost said "Yes" but then thought better of being rude, even though it was absolutely true.

"Well, I think something I said really hurt my friend's feelings. He won't respond to my calls or texts, so…I sent him a text saying that I was sorry, but…it's been a whole week, and Haku-chan hasn't gotten back to me yet," Sera sighed.

Sonoko's ears pricked up. "What happened with Hakuba-kun?"

Sera blushed and muttered, "I said something stupid and hurt his feelings."

"Oh no!" Ran chimed in, falling back to walk beside Sera. "I knew it had been a while since he'd come to pick you up from school, but I thought that you two must have been meeting later for dinner."

"You two didn't break up, did you?" Sonoko gasped, as invested in her friend's love life as she was in her favorite soap operas. _Very_. "Say it isn't so!"

"Sonoko-chan, we were never dating in the first place," Sera corrected with a grimace.

Sonoko rolled her eyes. "Yes you were, silly. You two have been going on dates practically every other day for the past two months. If you weren't dating, what would you call it?"

"We're just hanging out as friends, like what I do with you all," Sera tried to defend her understanding of the situation.

"Poor Hakuba-kun," Ran cooed softly. "When he likes you so much."

"I'm telling you, he doesn't like me," Sera insisted.

"I think he does," Conan threw in his two cents. "From what I've seen anyway."

Sera froze, feet sticking to the spot like they were stuck in molasses. "You're wrong," she replied firmly, but her body was trembling slightly. "I mean…he _can't_ like me. I'm… He… You're just wrong this time, Conan-kun." Taking a deep breath, she continued forward, but she was visibly shaken.

Sensing that it would be a bad idea to press the issue any further, the three continued walking on with her in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Sonoko spoke up once more.

"So…do you need help patching things up with Hakuba-kun? Or do you not want to talk about it?" Sonoko asked tactfully for once.

Masumi bit her lip and thought about it for a minute. Clearly she was getting nowhere on her own. Maybe it would help to talk it out with friends?

She pursed her lips and slowly began, "We were talking, and I asked him if there was someone he liked, and he said yes. I thought…look, there's this guy that Haku-chan's really close with, Kuroba. Haku-chan's always talking about Kuroba this and Kuroba that, and it just seems like Haku-chan really has a thing for Kuroba, so…I asked if the person he liked was Kuroba, but he got all defensive about not being gay, so…"

Ran, Sonoko, and Conan's mouths all fell open as they stared at Sera in horror.

Sera sighed. "Yeah. I know. Looking back, it was definitely wrong for me to be so insistent about him being gay when he was saying he wasn't, knowing how sensitive he is, but…"

Conan face-palmed while Ran and Sonoko continued looking on in absolutely astonished dread.

"Oh, Sera-san," Ran cried. "Poor Hakuba-kun!"

"Wow," Sonoko breathed. "Just…wow."

"You don't understand!" Sera tried to defend her misunderstanding. "Haku-chan and Kuroba have a serious bromance going on! The way Haku-chan talks about the guy is just—! I mean you should see his face when he talks about Kuroba! You'd make the same mistake if you could only hear the way he talks about him!"

"But what happened after the whole 'gay' misunderstanding? What did he say after that?" Sonoko moved the conversation along, unable to take much more. It was painful just hearing about it.

Sera froze up once again. She hung her head and mumbled in shame, "You guys are probably going to think I'm an idiot since you think he likes me, but…he was definitely joking when he said it. I know he was. I mean…he had to be…otherwise he's never gonna want to be my friend again."

"Wait. What happened? What was he joking about?" Ran piped up, hoping that things didn't get any worse for the poor British detective.

In a small voice, Sera confessed, "And I _know_ he was joking, but…he said…that the person he liked wasn't Kuroba, it was me."

Three mouths dropped open again as three pairs of eyes went as wide as Christmas ornaments.

"And what did you say?" Sonoko was afraid to ask.

Sera mumbled her response, and they had to ask her to repeat it three times.

"Poor Hakuba-kun!" Ran wailed while Conan looked on in deep sympathy for the blonde.

If Ran had challenged _his_ sexual orientation and then laughed at him once he'd finally gathered the courage to confess…he would probably be holed up in the Kudo Manor's study, curled up in a little ball with a good book, determined never to date ever again.

"Geez, guys, what if he really does like me?!" Sera started to panic. "What am I going to do?! He probably hates me now!" She turned to Conan and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout that screamed "Help me!"

While Sonoko and Ran verbally brainstormed dozens of suggestions, Conan furrowed his brow and thought a while before saying, "You should probably just leave him alone. If it were me, I'd be hurting pretty bad, so…maybe you should just let him have some time to heal."

Sera nodded, and, during the rest of the walk home, remained in pensive silence, going over the options in her head one by one, over and over.

Another week passed, and December came to Tokyo. With it a chilly breeze rolled in, and people began to break out their heavier coats, their hats, their scarves. It wasn't due to get really cold until January, but November and the time for light jackets was definitely over.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and Masumi was lying about the hotel room, snacking on a family-sized bag of shrimp chips along with flan by the three-pack while she lounged in front of the TV, marathoning the third season of Psych.

Her roommate raised an eyebrow at this behavior as she entered the bedroom and had to step over Masumi. "I take it Hakuba-kun hasn't called or texted you back yet."

"No," Sera grumbled, munching loudly. "That settles it. He hates me."

"Love does easily turn to hate, but I don't think he's the type of guy that would go that direction," the young girl comforted (?), going over to the armchair and sitting down to continue work on the scarf she was crocheting. "He's probably shut up in his room playing online games or something, eating all manner of junk…much like someone else I know."

Sera snorted indignantly, rolling over onto her side and turning her focus back to the TV.

"You're going to get fat if you keep this up," the child snickered.

Sera growled in irritation, retorting, "I'm gonna go for a run later."

"Sure you are," the girl replied with a smirk. "…So…judging by your behavior may I assume that you've realized that you have feelings for Hakuba-kun too?"

Masumi nearly choked on a shrimp chip. "Gack! What?!" She sat up and looked incredulously at the fair-haired girl. "No! It's not like that at all! Geez…he's just a really good friend. I mean…Kudo-kun—"

"—Already has someone, so what's the point?" the not-child chimed in. "I think you're missing out on a really great guy."

Sera sighed, settling back down on the floor and taking a bite of her flan. "I'm missing him, that's for sure."

"Then do something about it already," the young girl sighed, a twinge of frustration in her voice…but then she began to cough softly.

"Maybe I will," Sera muttered, getting up to go make some herbal tea. She brought it back to the bedroom and handed it over to the sick child before heading to the closet to pick out some clothes. "I'm going on my run now, okay? But you stay here and drink that tea."

"Who are you, my mother?" the normally serious child teased.

"Ha! Right!" Sera laughed, and they shared a smile.

As Masumi left, the green-eyed girl could only sip at her tea, work on her scarf, and hope for the good of everyone involved that Sera would just get her feelings in order already.

…

Masumi liked running because…well, one, it kept her in shape and able to chase down suspects when they inevitably ran for it, but also because it afforded her some alone time where she could just think, sort things out. Or, if she so chose, running provided a time where she could just turn her brain off for a little bit. She felt really in touch with herself, her body, her feelings when she ran. It helped her to focus and clear out the cobwebs, to make some good headspace.

Today Sera was doing a mix of the "putting things in order" running and the "shutting her thoughts off" running. She was trying to hammer out just how she felt about Hakuba Saguru. This inescapably led to crossed wires and mental systems crashes. There were points where she had to take a step back, stop thinking, and just run on autopilot for a while.

By the time her feet led her back to the hotel, Sera was still torn. She knew several things for certain, some of which were that Kudo Shinichi was currently eight years old, and, even if he did magically get un-shrunk, he was in love with Mouri Ran. And Ran-chan was one of the best people that Masumi had ever known. Masumi and Ran really were good friends, so even if Kudo-kun did come back and decide not to marry Ran-chan and live happily ever after, Masumi still wouldn't be able to go out with him and maintain a clear conscience. Unless Ran-chan said it was okay, but…Sera really doubted that that was going to happen, and you didn't date your friend's ex, so Kudo Shinichi and Sera Masumi were never going to be a couple, even if Sera did ever manage to sort out exactly how she felt for him, if he was just a mentor or something more or what. That much Sera knew for sure.

The important parts like how Haku-chan fit into this equation still eluded the poor girl.

"Did you have a good run?" her roommate greeted from where she sat on the couch out in the lounge.

"Yeah," Sera fibbed. She really didn't remember much of it, but her legs were sore, so that was probably an indication that she'd at least given her muscles a good workout. "Did you drink your tea? All of it?"

The child chuckled softly and nodded. This elicited a few more coughs.

"Maybe you should turn in for the night. It's only seven o'clock, but…" Sera bit her lip.

"I'll wait until you're done showering," the young girl conceded.

"Do you want something to eat before then? I can make you a snack and then we can have a real meal after I get out," Sera offered.

"No. You go ahead and go. I'll get some fruit out of the fridge. You coddle me too much," the child chuckled once more, this time with a soft smile. "Go shower. You're sweating like a glass of ice water sitting out in the summer, and I can smell you from here."

Masumi rolled her eyes and headed in to shower off.

While the water droplets pelted her skin and steam rose all around her, Sera went back to her thoughts of Hakuba Saguru. She honestly didn't know what to do. He really was a sweet guy, and she had no reason _not_ to like him. He was funny, thoughtful, dependable, smart, and fairly attractive.

If she were being honest with herself, she'd have to admit that there was no reason why she shouldn't fall for him. For someone like her, someone like him was a steal, but…she still couldn't come to a definite decision on the matter. What if she got all worked up about this and it turned out that he really didn't have feelings for her after all? Worse yet, what if they did start going out and it blew up so bad that they couldn't even be friends anymore?

The only thing she knew for certain was that she had to do something besides just text the guy. She was done waiting and hoping for the best. Now was the time to take action. If Haku-chan really was just brooding and moping like she herself had taken to doing, then there was no way he was going to get any better, and there was no way he was going to take the initiative to seek her out again. She also took into account the fact that the guy had already been burned badly once. Hakuba didn't really put his heart out on the line often like he had when he'd first tracked her down and asked her to meet up with him after they'd first met. It would take a lot of courage to approach Masumi again after what had happened, and Sera wasn't so sure her buddy had it in him. Sera herself had to be the one to make the first move.

The following day, Masumi skipped last period, whispering to Ran and Sonoko, "I'm going over to Ekoda to see if Haku-chan's willing to kiss and make up. Wish me luck! No, Sonoko-chan, there will be no _actual_ kissing. Geez." as she snuck out.

She took the train to Ekoda and waited nervously outside of the school gate, shifting her weight back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet, rising up on her tiptoes and then rocking back as she prayed Hakuba would hear her out and agree to patch things up.

As the students began to trickle out after the bell, Sera scanned the crowd anxiously. Worried that she might miss him, she sent a text reading, "Hey. We really need to talk, if you're willing. I'm waiting outside your school's gate." And then she began to worry that maybe he'd go out the back way or hop the fence or something in order to avoid her. Maybe she would have been better just waiting and skimming the herd of Ekoda students for him herself.

One male student that looked to be a first year asked her whom she was waiting for and then went in to spread the gossip, but, fifteen minutes later, she still hadn't heard anything from Hakuba. She was considering calling him when a voice called out from behind her.

"He didn't come to school today," it informed, sounding faintly amused that she was here.

Sera whipped around and found herself staring at a handsome young man that looked hauntingly familiar. "K-Kudo-kun?!"

The doppelganger laughed heartily at this and shook his head, pulling a pink rose out of nowhere and holding it out to her. "Nope. Even better. Kuroba Kaito, at your service," the magician replied with an overdramatic bow. "And you're Sera Masumi, right?"

Sera nodded, still a little shook up from the uncanny resemblance.

"Perfect," Kaito chuckled. "Like I said, Haku-chan didn't come to school today, but I think you and I need to talk to each other first anyway, so that works out just fine. Would you care to accompany me to a cute little café not too far from here? We can talk things out there."

Kuroba smiled at her, and it sent shivers down Masumi's spine. Even though the magician was being very cordial and had a light-hearted air about him, she could sense danger beneath that grin. It reminded her that she'd hurt Kuroba's best friend and that she probably wasn't going to get off the hook so easily with everything forgiven like it had never happened.

She happened to remember the tales Hakuba had told her about Kuroba's colossal pranks, and she shuddered, but, despite it all, she slapped on her own thin veil of a grin and agreed. "That sounds great, Kuroba-kun. I think that would be good. Go ahead and lead the way."

Inside she was thinking that this was the last thing she wanted to be doing, going out to talk things over with a guy who could, would, and had every reason to prank her into next week. She'd be lucky if she escaped this little coffee date with her hair still its original color.

…

Mikau: Bwahaha! You'll have to wait until Friday to see how the meeting between Kaito and Sera goes. Anyway, I thought that this was an interesting chapter. Like most of my work, I had fun with it, so I hope you enjoyed it too. How do you think I'm doing with Sera in my first all-Sera chapter? I think maybe I'm coming to understand her…or at least have my own interpretation of her, anyway. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to sit down and read, guys! I'll see you soon!


	5. Come Into My Parlor, Said the Spider

Mikau: Happy Friday! It is Friday, isn't it? I'm sick, so I'm kind of loopy lately. I think I've got the flu or some kind of bad cold. So if you find any weird typos, it's because I'm on cold medicine. And maybe also because I decided at the last minute to redo some parts of the chapter because I wasn't quite satisfied with them. Anyway, some of you asked about whether KaiShin would be a side pairing in this fic. There won't be any overt KaiShin, but I plan on having Hakuba, Kaito, Sera, and Conan hang out in the future, and Kaito's going to be a major flirt. I may do a KaiShin omake later to show their side of the story if you guys want, but let me know if you want there to be more or less KaiShin in the main part of the fic, and I'll take that into consideration. That being said, thanks so much to all of you that review! I really appreciate your input and time, and you're all so helpful! A big thanks to: Orange04, Bunnyz-chan, dreamingfifi, Kimmiko T, Late Bloomers, ShootingLightStar, neonquincy1217, and GeekyGenius!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, a lot more time would be spent in coffee shops having deep, meaningful, character developing conversations. I have a feeling DCMK would also have turned out more like a soap opera if I were in charge, but…I digress.

…

Chapter Five: "Come Into My Parlor,"

Said the Spider to the Fly

Kuroba took Sera to a diner called Nancy's that wasn't too far from the school.

It was only a ten minute walk, but it was ten minutes of hell for Sera Masumi. Along the way, strange things kept happening.

A little flock of pigeons descended upon her, landing on her head, shoulders, and bag. Kuroba got them off, but she was pretty sure that he'd pickpocketed her in the process.

She kind of got the feeling that he was in on it in the first place too. Those pigeons were probably some of the magician's own doves made up to look like pigeons and hired to mug her by Kuroba himself.

And then there were the tripping incidents.

Sera was not a klutz. She didn't just trip over her own two feet, so the fact that she kept faltering in her steps and almost ending up on her face on the perfectly even sidewalk was suspicious. She didn't feel or see him do anything to trip her, but Masumi knew that that trickster Kuroba was to blame.

Lastly, there were the weird sounds…that seemingly only Sera could hear. He was trying to make her think she was crazy. They'd be walking along, and then, all of a sudden, there would be this loud noise like a car crash or a gunshot or a car horn. Sera would jump in response, but Kuroba would act like he hadn't heard anything at all.

"You're sure you didn't hear that?" she demanded.

He shook his head, looking completely innocent. And then he had the audacity to send her a worried look, as if he were concerned that she was losing her mind. "I didn't hear anything, Sera-san."

There was probably a speaker stuck on the underside of her jacket collar, right at the back of her neck. He'd most likely put it there when the birds attacked.

"Right." With a sigh she continued walking.

By the time that they arrived, Sera was certain that her wallet was either gone or switched out with a wallet full of Monopoly money, that her mobile had been replaced with a plastic toy phone, and that there was some kind of sign on her back declaring her to be a skank or inviting people to kick her. She really didn't want to check. She didn't want to know, because if things were missing or switched or added, she'd know that she'd deserved it for what she had done to the prankster's best friend. All she could really hope was that when she did eventually pull everything out to check, something embarrassing like condoms or tampons didn't fall out as well in front of witnesses.

Kuroba was still smiling an eerily casual grin as they came to a stop in front of the diner. "We're here~!" he trilled, opening the door for her in a gentlemanly manner.

She knew it was a bad idea to turn her back to him, that he'd only stick things in her pockets or steal her keys or something, but, at this point, she was resigned to her fate. She thanked him and entered the restaurant.

Nancy's was a small establishment that screamed "tea party!" with its pastel color scheme, lacey tablecloths, and waitresses dressed in (again, pastel) maid outfits. Nancy's had a warm atmosphere, though, and Sera had to admit that the place was cute…the maids were cute.

Kuroba walked in like he owned the place and led the way to the back of the restaurant, waving and smiling at waitresses, greeting them by name (a favor which the giggling gaggle of women then returned).

Kuroba was a regular, then. In fact, now that she thought about it, Hakuba _had_ mentioned going to Nancy's with the magician a couple of times.

It seemed as if Kuroba was on his way to what Masumi gathered was some kind of "usual" booth, but he suddenly stopped short, as if he'd had second thoughts about letting Sera sit in Hakuba's usual place.

Kaito turned to her and smiled, indicating the second to last booth at the back of the diner. "Is here good?"

She nodded her consent, and they sat down to look over the menus in, what for Sera was, nerve-wracking silence. She quickly decided on the tonkatsu set and was done with it, putting down the menu and looking up uneasily at Kuroba.

He smiled brightly.

It was positively unnerving.

Finally she took a deep breath and got down to business. "Okay, look. I'm really sorry. If this is about what I did to Haku-chan, all I can say is that I can be super dense about things when I'm not working on a case. I didn't mean to hurt him, and I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I can to make it up to him, but…I can't take back or make elaborate excuses for what I did. I know I was in the wrong so…or did you bring me here to tell me that Haku-chan is yours and that I should butt out?" she sighed, not at all certain of what she was going to get. From her understanding, Kuroba was a mixed bag of tricks that could go off in horrible ways if she pressed the wrong button.

Meanwhile, as Sera sat there sweating, across the table, Kuroba Kaito was plotting his next move. He had been _planning_ on pranking this heartless woman all the way to the moon and back. As soon as he'd heard that she'd had the nerve to mess with his best friend like that and then, on top of that, had the audacity to come back to darken Hakuba's doorstep yet again, Kaito had begun plotting all the best ways to make her pay. He had intended to put her in embarrassing clothing, change her hair color, scribble on her face, put gum in her hair, glue her to the seat, switch the ringtones and text alert on her phone, misplace her wallet for her, and do everything else just short of actually drawing and quartering her.

But now Kaito's intense rage had been extinguished because he believed Sera when she said that she was sorry, that she'd never meant to hurt Saguru. He believed her when she said that she wanted to make things right. And Kaito wanted to help her set things straight because he knew how happy that would make Saguru.

Kaito's indigo eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms, leaning back in an intimidating manner. "First of all, he _is_ MY 'Haku-chan'…" The rigid expression melted off of Kuroba's face with a sigh, and the magician returned to regarding her in a friendly manner. "…but I'm willing to let him be your 'Saguru', so you'd better start calling him that, 'cause with you calling him 'Haku-chan' too, these past two weeks he's been cringing whenever _I_ call him that, and that's _my_ nickname for him. I've been calling him that for the better part of a year now, so get your own way of calling him."

Masumi blushed and nodded, looking down into the menu once more. "So…Kuroba-kun…do you…are you and Ha—Saguru…-kun…are you two…?"

"What? Dating? Sleeping together? Just friends? Like brothers?" Kaito offered up an array of options with a sickly sweet, innocent smile.

"Y-Yeah. Any of those. I mean…I didn't mean to steal your boyfriend from you or anything." Sera squirmed as she nervously waited for the answer.

"Any of those?" Kaito repeated. "Yes, some of those apply."

Sera's eyes narrowed. "W-Which ones?"

"The last two," Kaito chuckled, enjoying his role in life as a troll. Just because he'd decided to cut the girl a break didn't mean that he couldn't still mess with her head. "We're just friends, but the guy is like my brother, so you mess with him, you mess with me. That's why we're here right now."

"Okay. Good to know," she sighed, feeling a mix of overwhelmed and relieved.

He bit his lip and decided to ease up a little. She was hurting too (not as much as Hakuba, but…) "You probably were getting mixed signals from Haku-chan about our relationship, yeah?"

She nodded.

Kaito shrugged and then leaned forward with his elbows on the table. "You've probably heard this from him, but Haku-chan doesn't really have a lot of people that he's close to. What you probably haven't heard is that that number is three—Baaya, me, and now you. That's all he's really got. Sure, there are some friendly acquaintances around him, but he keeps them at a distance. The people he does lower his walls for, he truly treasures, so maybe now you can understand why things between me and Haku-chan are a little on the BL-side…. And maybe now you can kind of appreciate your own position a little better."

Masumi paled when she considered how painfully honest Hakuba had always been with her. If it were true that he didn't really _do_ that kind of thing, then… She wanted the building to cave in on top of her so that she wouldn't have to fix this mess she had made. "Then…he really does _like me_ like me after all, doesn't he?"

"Yep," Kaito replied, letting his lips go with a pop.

"Crap," she hissed under her breath.

Kaito tilted his head to the side. "Problem?"

"_Yes_," she whined. "He _likes_ me! What the hell am I gonna do about it?!"

Kaito shrugged and motioned for the waitress to come take their order. "That seems fairly straightforward to me. Do _you_ like _him_?"

Sera pondered the question while they placed their orders, and then, once the waitress had walked away, she replied, "I honestly don't know."

Kaito raised an eyebrow at her. "Well… What seems to be the problem?"

"I just…" She bit her lip, not knowing exactly what the problem was herself.

"If this is about Kudo Shinichi, he's already got someone, and if that doesn't work out because of the current age difference, I've got first crack at him after Ran-chan, and I've made sure that he knows it, so you can just forget about Shin-chan," Kaito retorted, making Sera's mouth drop open.

There was so much to react to just within that one sentence. Sera took a deep breath and began, "First of all, how do you know about Kudo-kun and Conan-kun? Secondly…you're gay, Kuroba-kun?" She stared at him in wide-eyed curiosity.

The phantom grinned. "I could ask you the same thing, Sera-chan. How do you know about the whole Shinichi/Conan thing?"

Masumi pursed her lips, a little put out that Kuroba was being evasive. "…I met him when I was little. Besides, I'm a detective. I'm perfectly capable of putting two and two together to get four. What about you?"

Kaito shrugged. "The Kurobas are old family friends of the Kudos." Sure, he had only learned that in recent years, but it made a good excuse for the moment. "And, as you've noticed, Shin-chan and I look really similar, so I've dressed up as him a couple times to help him out. As for me being allegedly gay, it's really that I'm bi. Generally, I prefer women, but… Any more questions, Tantei-chan? Or can we get back to talking about what a stud Haku-chan is?"

Masumi blushed and shook her head with a sigh. "Look, I'm telling you that I don't know if I feel that way about him."

"And I'm asking you what the problem is," Kaito countered.

"And I'm telling you that I don't know," she sighed in frustration once more.

"Do you think he's not a great guy?" Kaito challenged.

"N-No," Sera stuttered, looking down at her hands in her lap. "Haku—Saguru-kun is a wonderful guy."

"Does he make you laugh?" Kaito inquired.

"Yes," she answered honestly.

"Do you have fun when you hang out with him? Do you enjoy being around him?" Kaito prodded.

"Yes and yes," she replied.

"Can we agree that he's attractive?"

Sera bit her lip and thought about it for a moment. Would she really consider Hakuba attractive? She knew he was good-looking in general by the world's standards, but did she personally find him attractive?

"Okay. Let me rephrase: can we agree that he's not repulsive?" Kaito amended.

"Yes," she quickly responded, sure enough of that point.

"Would it be fair to say that you're at least neutral to his looks?" Kaito pressed his luck.

"Yes," she agreed pretty easily.

"Could we even go so far as to say that he looks half-way decent?" Kaito haggled.

"…Yes," she replied much more slowly this time.

"Alright, so Haku-chan is a wonderful guy that makes you laugh. You have fun with him, and you enjoy spending time with him. You even think that he's not half bad in the looks department. We haven't even covered the part where he's loyal, absolutely devoted, and self-sacrificing. We didn't talk about how he's compassionate, considerate, and, like, the perfect guy right out of some dating sim game yet either. If all that wasn't enough, he's freaking rich, and he'd definitely treat you like a princess if you gave him the chance. Why don't you want to date this guy?"

All of a sudden Masumi got it, and the words left her mouth before she could think, "Because I'm not the type of girl that belongs with Saguru-kun, and if things didn't work out and we broke up, it would be super awkward, and we wouldn't be able to be friends anymore. I don't want to lose him. He's seriously one of the coolest guys I've ever met, and…he's one of my best friends. I want to keep being friends for a long time, so…that's why I don't want to date him. I don't want to mess things up."

Kaito nodded, finally satisfied with her answer. He smiled softly and gently replied, "You know, they say that the greatest things in life are worth the risk. Why don't you ponder that for a while? Take as long as you need, and then get back to him. What do you say?"

Sera was afforded a moment to think over her answer as the waitress arrived with their food just then. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she puzzled over the matter at hand. In the end, she decided that it couldn't hurt anything, her considering the idea of dating Hakuba. It wasn't like she was promising anything. All she was doing was buying a little more time before she had to give her answer.

"I'll put some thought into it, Kuroba-kun," she replied after the waitress had left them.

Kaito smiled brightly, that response having appeased him. "Awesome. Now that that business is settled we can concentrate on having fun!" the magician chuckled.

Sera blinked as all of the tension between them suddenly lifted and Kuroba began asking her all sorts of questions about what TV shows she watched, what books she read, what kind of music she was into at the moment, and all manner of similar topics.

Masumi smiled and let all the stress go, answering Kaito's questions and asking many of her own. During the next forty-five minutes, they discovered that they had much in common indeed.

After they'd finished eating and Kaito had picked up the tab, the magician tugged her along behind him, announcing that they had business to attend to on the outskirts of Ekoda.

"Where exactly are we going?" Sera asked once more as they got off the bus. She hadn't received an answer the first four times she'd asked, and she wasn't expecting much more this time, but Kaito surprised her with a response.

"The Hakuba Manor. You're gonna cheer him up with the news that you'll think about his confession," Kaito informed just as they rounded a corner and a very large house that could only be the Hakuba Manor came into view.

Masumi first paled and then blushed at the prospect of intruding into Hakuba's house and rubbing salt into his wounds with her presence. She came to a screeching halt and gawked openly at her new friend. "Kai-chan, I can't!"

"Why not? You came to school to see him today, didn't you? You were going to see him just a few hours ago, right, so what's the big deal about it now?" Kaito reasoned, taking her by the arm and dragging her along.

She tried to dig her heels in, but her school shoes were not the best footwear for that purpose. "Kai-chan, no! That was before I knew he was sick!"

Kuroba rolled his eyes and snorted, "He's not sick. He's just depressed because you laughed him out of the Beika District when he confessed to you. He'll be fine once you tell him you'll think about his confession."

Somehow Sera doubted that, but it was too late to turn back now because they were already on the porch, and Kaito had, regrettably, rung the doorbell.

…

Mikau: *Sigh of relief* Well. That wasn't too bad, actually. This chapter was a challenge because Kaito's super protective of the people he cares about, so I imagine him being royally ticked off at Sera and wanting to burn her badly for what she did to his best friend. At the same time, he's the one playing matchmaker, so he has to put his own anger aside and befriend Sera for Hakuba's sake. Hopefully I portrayed Kaito's change of heart regarding Sera after learning that it was all an honest mistake well. This chapter was fun to write (like most of them) even though it was a challenge. I really enjoyed the Kaito Sera interaction, and hopefully you did too. Thanks so much for reading, guys! Let me know what you thought! See you Tuesday!


	6. The Mother-In-Law

Mikau: Hello everyone and Merry Christmas (or whatever you're celebrating this time of year)! I'm still sick, but I'm definitely improving. I didn't get out of my pajamas from the time I got home from work on Wednesday to the time I had to take my puppies to obedience class on Saturday night (after which I came home and went back to bed), but I got lots of rest and was able to go to work yesterday. Hopefully I'll keep steadily improving. Anyway, I'm excited for Christmas and whatever Kid is doing on Christmas Eve with that heist note he sent (still not sure what that's all about) and "The Disappearance of Edogawa Conan" airing on Boxing Day, so there's a lot of DCMK stuff happening in the next few days. Well, moving on. Before we get started, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers from last time: Orange04, incandescent stars, Bunnyz-chan, Kimmiko T, GeekyGenius, neonquincy1217, and Late Bloomers! You guys are really encouraging me to continue to work hard!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Hakuba would have a bigger part in the MK1412 anime. Seriously. At least put him in the background or something! Use him as a rival character! Let the guy have a few lines every once in a while! I'm really sad that the anime isn't really paying attention to the supporting characters like Akako, Hakuba, and Keiko. I feel like they're missing a lot of opportunities for character development.

…

Chapter Six: The Mother-in-Law

A kindly old woman with glasses attached to a chain around her neck opened one of the grand double doors of the Hakuba Manor and smiled in sheer relief. "Kaito-kun! I'm so glad you're here," she greeted.

"Hey, Baaya," Kaito returned, giving the woman a hug and a kiss to either side of each cheek. "How's he doing?"

Baaya shook her head. "He's locked himself in his room to eat junk and work on cold cases. The only good news is that he's solved ten just since this morning, but if he's throwing himself into his work this hard…" She bit her lip and sighed, "I just don't know what I'm going to do. He's never been in love before, and this girl has just got him so out of sorts."

It was then that Baaya noticed Sera. The old woman blinked and then jumped slightly when she realized that there was someone standing off a ways behind Kaito. "Oh! Heavens! And who might this young ma—…lady…be?" Baaya corrected herself as she noted the uniform skirt.

Sera was really wishing she could turn invisible at the moment. Her entire face went red as she bowed deeply at the waist. In a very small, humble voice she replied, "I would be the oblivious, idiotic jerkface that made this mess in the first place." She braced for impact. "I'm Sera Masumi."

Before Baaya could say anything in response, Kaito cut in, assuring, "She's here to apologize and let Saguru know that she's going to consider his confession!"

"Oh. Good." Baaya put on a strained, fake smile as she stepped out of the way, motioning them inside. "Well, come on in, then. It's positively nippy out there in the cold."

The inside of the Hakuba Manor was done in the western style. It was a lovely house that was faithfully kept by Baaya so that not a statuette was out of place, nor was a single surface sullied by even a speck of dust. It was very impressive, but it didn't feel like the kind of place where a child should grow up. It was too neat and organized with an almost militaristic precision. It was the kind of place where running and shouting and play in general didn't seem like they'd be encouraged.

Seeing one of the places where Saguru had spent his childhood, Masumi felt that she could understand him better. It was no wonder he'd become the way he was. Still, she made sure to turn to Baaya and graciously compliment her housekeeping abilities. "It's such a gorgeous home."

Baaya felt like snapping at the insolent young woman, telling her not to start moving in and thinking of herself as mistress of the house yet because Baaya would sooner have the place burn down with her entire family inside of it than have her precious foster son of sorts marry a cruel woman like Sera Masumi. However, Baaya had been a faithful servant of the family for thirty-five years, acting as governess to Helen, Saguru's mother, before subsequently practically raising the child in question herself. She knew how to behave in a manner that would do the Hakuba family proud. She knew how to comport herself in front of guests, so she held her tongue, despite the overwhelming desire to hurt the woman that had so devastated her precious child.

"I'll go up and let Haku-chan know that we're here," Kaito called over his shoulder to the two women as he headed up the stairs without waiting to be shown the way. "It'll probably take a while to get his butt out of bed and presentable, so can you play nice with Sera-chan while I deal with Saguru, Baaya? Thanks!"

And that left Masumi all alone with her possible future mother-in-law of sorts…a woman who was obviously furious at her for hurting her baby.

Sera swallowed hard, holding in the urge to fidget.

"I'll show you to the lounge," Baaya informed civilly. "You may wait there."

"T-Thank you," Sera responded uneasily, knowing that she was deep within enemy territory.

They really didn't have far to go. The lounge was just to the left as you entered, right before you went up the staircase that Kaito had used.

Baaya stopped in the doorway but motioned Sera inside. With a bow she said kindly, "I'll go get you some tea."

Sera started to turn down the generous offer, but Baaya bowed and walked off before Sera could finish her sentence. She supposed that the old woman needed to get away, unable to hold that glued on smile of serenity any longer.

Sera bit her lip as she stood awkwardly in the living room, looking around but afraid to touch anything.

It looked like some setup right out of a museum exhibit of period furniture. It was decorated in the French style with beautifully crafted side tables holding vases, small sculptures, and various pieces of art. There was a chaise lounge, two sofas, a fireplace, and several elegant chairs situated about the room with end tables and side tables strategically placed around them. The walls were white, contrasting with the rich colors in the area rug and the gorgeous brown of the wood of the furniture. Paintings hung proudly from the walls, depicting lovely nature scenes, rustic harbors, and cozy cottages.

It really was an impressive home, but…there wasn't a single personal touch to show that someone lived here. There were no family photos or a book or a newspaper or something left out by someone who had been sitting in the living room reading. There wasn't even a pretentious coffee table book that might indicate the family's interests. The living room was completely devoid of personality.

"Here you are," Baaya announced as she returned with the promised tea. "Saguru should be down shortly, so just let me know if you need anything in the meantime." Baaya forced another smile and turned to leave once more.

"Wait!" Sera called out, not knowing how long she could sit in that lifeless room by herself in silence. "…Um…Sorry. I don't mean to interrupt your work, if you're busy, but…"

"Yes?" Baaya waited patiently.

"Uh…Sorry. I just noticed that there aren't really any pictures of the family in here. I mean, the living room was always where my family kept the family photos, so…I was just wondering where yours are."

Baaya's eyes widened slightly as she took in Sera's words and the sight of the antsy girl in front of her. Baaya decided to "play nice" as Kaito had requested. "Superintendent Hakuba has never been a very hands-on father, so he doesn't keep more than a photo or two of his family on his desk at his office. As I believe Saguru has told you, his parents did not marry or have him of their own free will, so… The Master tries to be kind about it. He's strict, but he's never cruel to Saguru, but…I don't believe there's any genuine affection in their relationship…therefore, we don't keep family photos about the house."

Upon seeing the pain and sympathy in the girl's eyes, Baaya continued. "I, however, keep them in my kitchen and bedroom."

Sera's face lit up. "Could I see the kitchen? Please? I mean, if it's not too much trouble, obviously."

Baaya considered the girl for a minute and then nodded. "Right this way. It's just all the way down the hall at the back of the house. Last door to the right," Baaya announced as she led the way.

In transit they passed the dining room and several other small rooms. Masumi noted that they were all like the living room: all of them looked like demo furniture or museum displays.

They arrived at the last door on the right which Baaya opened, ushering Sera in. "There you are. Welcome to the heart of the home."

And it really was. The kitchen was the first place where Sera had seen evidence of life in the Hakuba Manor. The kitchen was big and bright, and it smelled wonderful, like sauces and spices and lots of love that went into the cooking. The décor reminded Masumi of rural Italy—it was classy, yet homey and earthy, conjuring up the image of rolling hills and roosters, dirt roads and vineyards. It was open and warm and welcoming with the utensils lying about and cookbooks left open to old, handwritten family recipes. The best part about the kitchen was the pictures on the walls, in frames on the counters, and hung by magnets from the fridge.

"Wow," Sera gasped in awe as she entered, trying to take it all in at once. "This is awesome. Would you mind if I looked at the photos?"

"Go ahead," Baaya conceded, beginning to warm up to the girl if only slightly because of Sera's honest personality and enthusiasm.

With a giant grin, the detective began browsing, smiling and laughing at the pictures of a young Saguru. Among them were the occasional newspaper clipping kept in the frame along with the photo, detailing some case or another that Saguru had solved. Sera's favorites were ones of little Saguru, caught up in exploring the world and not even realizing his picture was being taken. One of the best ones was of a five year-old Saguru at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The sheer joy and wonder on the child's face was absolutely beautiful.

Another contender was a newer photograph hanging on the fridge of Saguru and Kaito. Kaito was hanging off of Saguru, his arms wrapped around the blonde's neck, their bodies as close as lovers'. Kaito was smiling and laughing. Meanwhile, Saguru's entire face was red, and it looked like he was protesting the intimate position, but you could tell by the hint of joy on his face that he secretly was elated that there was someone emotionally close enough to him to physically be that close to him.

Although the majority of the pictures were of Saguru, there were others mixed in as well. There were a few photographs of a beautiful young woman with honey blonde hair and rich golden eyes that seemed to stare right out of the photo and through Sera.

"That's Helen Griffin," Baaya supplied, noticing Sera's interest in those particular pictures. "Saguru's biological mother when she was younger…right around twenty in this one, I believe. She's cut her hair a bit since then, but, other than that, she looks much the same. I don't know that he's told you much about her, but she's an entrepreneur. She's a fashion designer, even has her own clothing line headquartered in London. She's always been such a sweet, kind girl, but growing up the way she did with such a doting father and all of that money…she's terribly spoiled and more than a little bit selfish. That's why I eventually had to completely take over care of Saguru, but…I started off as Helen's governess when she was very young."

"She's gorgeous," Sera whispered reverently. "…Now that I look again, I can see the resemblance. She really does look a lot like Saguru-kun, doesn't she? The eyes and the hair are different shades, but…the face especially looks really similar."

"Yes," Baaya chuckled despite herself, finding the girl amusing even though she was fighting against such leanings with all her being. It was so hard for her to intentionally dislike someone, though. "My Saguru has always been quite the beauty…unfortunate as that may have been for him. Here in Japan, feminine men aren't as rare, so he fared better here, but…he always did get teased for his looks when he was…well…still now."

"That must have been really hard," Masumi mumbled, brow furrowing as she imagined what it must have been like for her friend. "No wonder he's always had such a hard time opening up to people and making friends. He probably got scared of the rejection and started to cut himself off from the other kids, clammed up."

Baaya's eyes widened at Sera's words. Perhaps this girl wasn't a total witch after all. How could she be when she was so sympathetic towards Saguru? She really did understand him after all. Could it be that this entire debacle really was just a big misunderstanding?

"And who are these two boys?" Sera inquired, moving on and pointing out the two young men that appeared in a handful of the other photos.

Baaya nodded, smiling softly. "Those are my two boys—my biological sons. They're just about five or six years younger than Helen. Mostly raised by their father, but…well, being an heiress's governess was good money, so I supported my family financially, even though I was a bit of an absentee mother. They're all still back in England…. They're right about thirty at the moment. You can see them how they look now in that picture over there. They sent it to me just a few months ago."

Sera's mouth dropped open, and she looked at Baaya in wonder. "Why aren't you with them?"

Baaya shrugged, soft smile still in place. "I wouldn't say that we have a bad relationship, but we are a bit estranged. When I was young, I was very much a go with the flow kind of person. I just let my life happen to me and didn't really question the way things were. My marriage, getting pregnant…I never really planned anything out. It just…happened, so I was never seriously attached to anything. I certainly don't think I was a bad mother, but my husband was the primary caregiver their entire lives. They're close to him, but…they never really needed me. I was too busy raising someone else's child.

"And then Saguru was born, and he needed me for everything." A smile full of deep love and affection took over Baaya's face. "That poor, unplanned child brought into the world by two people who neither cared for each other nor that tiny, innocent creature…he needed someone to love him in the worst way possible, so I became his mother. When he told me that he wanted to move to Japan to chase jewel thieves, I picked up and went with him because…my boy still needs me. I couldn't send him here to a foreign land full of unfamiliar customs, so I came too. I figured that, at the very least, I could share in his struggles as another half coming home to a country that didn't recognize you as belonging."

"You're a half too, Baaya?" Masumi smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry. May I call you 'Baaya'? I…don't know your name. Sorry."

Baaya considered the request for a moment. "It's just as well. I probably wouldn't respond to someone calling my name anymore, it's been so long. I've been Baaya for eighteen years now, and before that I was Nana for about fourteen. My name, however, is Margaret, and, yes, I'm half Japanese, half German. Well, with a little European cocktail in the German side of the mix," she replied with a laugh.

"Thank you…Baaya." Sera smiled brightly. "And thanks so much for telling me all of that. I…" Her grin dimmed slightly. "I owe you an apology too, Baaya. I must have made the past two weeks pretty awful for you too, and it must hurt to see your precious son in so much pain, so…" Sera dropped into a deep bow once more. "There's no excuse for my behavior, and I sincerely apologize. I swear that I'm gonna do whatever I can to make things right between me and Saguru-kun, and I promise you I'm not gonna make him upset anymore. Promise."

Baaya gave the apology some thought before bowing slightly in return. "I accept your apology on the condition that you fulfill your promise. Are we understood, young lady?"

"Crystal clear!" Sera nearly cheered as she came out of her bow with a lively, sunny grin.

"Then let me show you some of the baby pictures," Baaya chuckled, taking the girl by the arm in a friendly, familiar fashion and walking her over to the photo album on the far counter by the blender.

"Gosh, I bet Saguru-kun was the cutest little thing!" Sera laughed boisterously.

Baaya agreed wholeheartedly and then proceeded to produce photographic evidence to back up her claims, crowing like a proud mother over her child and his various accomplishments.

Meanwhile, on the second floor of the Hakuba Manor, Kaito had his work cut out for him.

…

Mikau: How was it? I really wanted to bring Baaya into the mix because she's an important part of Hakuba's family and a big part of his life. The challenge in this one is having Baaya slowly warm up to Sera. Hopefully I eased into it gradually enough for it to be believable. As a kind of sort of mother of two beautiful puppies, I can kind of understand Baaya's feelings for Saguru, and I know that if someone hurt my baby boy, I'd cut them. So it was hard to realistically have her change her mind about Sera. But what did you think? Hopefully you liked it. Let me know, and I'll be back on Friday with a chapter between the two guys. See you then!


	7. Getting It Together

Mikau: Hey guys! Happy Friday! I hope all those celebrating had a wonderful Christmas! My puppies Eiko and Noiz had a lot of fun opening their presents (They really like shredding paper, a hobby I don't usually encourage), and I had a lot of fun watching them and taking pictures and video. It was cute the way Noiz pranced around the room with the paper. The squeaky toy fell out, but he didn't even notice because he was so happy with the wrapping paper. Anyway, today I have for you a Hakuba and Kaito chapter with the HakuSera reunion (the start of it anyway) at the end. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks a ton to everyone that's reading and reviewing, especially the reviewers from last chapter: Orange04, slacker, neonquincy1217, GeekyGenius, Kimmiko T, Bunnyz-chan, and Miss Emotion (times three)!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I bet they would send me free copies of the manga. Then I wouldn't have to import it all.

…

Chapter Seven: Getting it Together

Kaito escorted himself up the stairs and down the hall to Saguru's room. He had been there countless times before—not always in a purely legal capacity, mind you. In fact, throughout the first year of their acquaintance, Kaito mainly snuck in for reconnaissance, but he'd gradually worked his way up to scaling the large oak tree right alongside the balcony connected to Hakuba's room and dropping in unannounced at odd times of the night. From there, Kaito had graduated to actually coming through the front door (and invited, no less) like a normal person. Sometimes Kaito still shimmied up the oak tree for kicks, but…the point was that Kaito knew the inside of the Hakuba Manor incredibly well and was therefore very comfortable with showing himself to Saguru's room.

When he got there, however, the door was locked.

Kaito frowned and rolled his eyes before making quick work of the obstacle. "Haku-chan!" he called out loudly as he let himself in.

Saguru, who had been lying in bed with a pillow over his head at that time, nearly jumped at the sudden invasion of his solitary sanctuary of sulking. _Nearly_, but by that point he was too apathetic to respond to something Kaito had done daily over the past two weeks. Albeit, Kuroba was a little later than usual today, but…Saguru had long ago learned to tune out Kaito's very existence, and, besides, he had weightier issues to deal with than his best friend at the moment. Namely: his life was over at eighteen, he was never going to get a girlfriend, and he would probably have to become an armchair detective because he wasn't so sure that he'd ever be able to show his face in public again.

"Haku-chan!" Kaito sang once more, going over to the bed and belly-flopping on top of Saguru. "Haku-chan, you're catastrophizing again, aren't you? And you're thinking too much; I can read it in your aura. Stop overthinking," Kaito lovingly chided, crawling on top of Saguru so that he was straddling the blonde.

"Kuroba, back off," Saguru growled, but his voice sounded weak, not inspiring much confidence in what was supposed to be a threat. In a more quiet, broken voice he amended, "Not today."

"Saguru," Kaito cooed, grabbing the pillow that the Brit was using to hide his splotchy complexion and bloodshot eyes. "I've got a surprise for you."

"You know how much I hate surprises, especially coming from you," Saguru grumbled, paying little to no attention to the fact that there was a thief sitting on his chest.

Kaito stuck out his bottom lip in a pout for a split second before cheerfully grinning down at his buddy. "You positively wound me sometimes. Guess who came to our school today!"

"The police?" Saguru sighed, deigning to play Kaito's game since it would probably get the magician off of his person sooner than any other course of action save judo throwing the guy. Somehow Saguru got the feeling that Kaito would slip out of his hold before he could actually throw him.

Kaito frowned. "Nooo. Guess again, and stop being so negative and unimaginative."

"I don't bloody well know, Kuroba. Was it Santa Claus?" Saguru grumbled. He had a particularly short fuse that day.

Kaito's eyes narrowed, and in the most serious tone Saguru had ever heard, replied, "Haku-chan, get real. Everyone knows that Santa's too busy this close to Christmas to come to a high school. I mean, unless someone there seriously needed a real Christmas miracle; then he would come, but, otherwise, Santa would just send one of his helpers. You know. Like the guys that help out at the mall. There's no way that the _real_ Santa would come to Ekoda High."

"Right," Saguru replied in a small voice. "How silly of me. Of course Mr. Claus doesn't have that kind of leisure time to just pop in right around Christmas. What was I thinking?"

The real question was: Did Kuroba Kaito honestly still believe in Santa Claus? He had sounded so absolutely sincere, but…you could never put it past Kaito to pull your leg. He could swear to you with a straight face that he was actually a three time Olympic medal winner in foosball and, in seven minutes, have you believing it.

But before Saguru could be certain, Kaito's frown faded and was replaced within seconds by a smug grin. "Sera-chan came to see you today."

Saguru regained possession of the pillow and once more situated it over his head. "What did she want? What did you tell her?"

"She wanted to see you, make sure you were okay," Kaito replied gently, rolling off of his friend to sit on the bed beside Saguru. "More than anything, she wanted to say sorry."

Saguru rolled over onto his side and curled up, still hiding his face with the pillow.

"We went to Nancy's and talked for a while, and she really does seem sincere. She feels really guilty, and she wants to be friends still if you'll forgive her. Come on, Haku-chan. You know that you want to see her, and I think you've sulked enough. She says that she doesn't really know how she feels about you, but…she's going to consider your confession and let you know when she decides," Kaito baited, holding his breath, and really hoping that that would be enough to entice Saguru out of hiding.

The plan was a success. Saguru slowly sat up, letting the pillow fall to the floor as he stared at Kaito in disbelief. "She did? She…She said that she'd think about it?"

Kaito nodded.

"Kuroba, if you're lying about this…" Saguru threatened, wagging a finger in Kaito's face. "I swear to you…"

Kaito held his hands up at chest level and smiled. "Hey, no worries. I swear I'm telling the truth. In fact, she'll tell you the exact same thing when you talk to her in, like, half an hour."

Saguru blinked, and then his eyes narrowed. "Half an hour?"

"Yeah. She's downstairs," Kaito chuckled. "Get up and take a shower while I pick out some clothes for you."

Saguru's face blanched. "D-D-Downstairs? She's downstairs?! Why on God's green Earth is Sera Masumi downstairs?! As in, in my house, downstairs?! Wh-Why is she… Oh, God," Saguru sputtered, beginning to hyperventilate.

"Haku-chan," Kaito called, taking Hakuba by the shoulders and trying to get his attention. "Saguru, focus. It's fine. It's all cool. Everything's going to be wonderful; just settle down for me, okay?"

"How am I supposed to settle down when the girl I'm in love with is downstairs in my living room, and I'm up here liquefying in my own filth?" Saguru posed.

Kaito looked around the room at the barely noticeable signs of disarray. The papers on the desk were in messy piles instead of the neat stacks that Saguru always sorted them into, and there were a few dirty dishes neatly placed together on the coffee table, just waiting to be taken downstairs. Sure, there were a few empty wrappers and snack bags strewn on the floor at the base of the trashcan from when Saguru had chucked them and not really cared too much, one way or the other, about if they had actually found their way into the rubbish bin, BUT Kaito's room was a _lot_ worse. In fact, nearly every teenage boy in Tokyo's room was in a worse state on a regular basis than this one. The only reason Hakuba was convinced that he was living in squalor was that the guy was normally an OCD clean freak with a bad case of perfectionism.

But Kaito knew better than to say anything that would contradict Saguru's firmly held beliefs at this point in time. Instead, he nodded like he understood what was going on inside of that crazy brain of Saguru's (because he actually did for the most part. Scary thought: he'd learned to think like the blonde detective after their tenure together as classmates, rivals, and friends) and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Haku-chan, I kind of left her down there all alone with Baaya," Kaito replied unrepentantly. "So if you could stop having a midlife crisis until you're, like, actually fifty, get in the shower, and go downstairs to intervene before Baaya scares Sera-chan off for good, that would be great."

Hakuba picked up a spare pillow and socked Kaito with it. "Why couldn't you have told me that important piece of information first?" he seethed as he threw off the covers and stalked towards the bedroom door.

"I was afraid you'd have a heart attack if I didn't lead into it properly!" Kaito called after him.

The magician received some very rude comments in English in return, but he quickly shrugged it off and got to work on cleaning up and picking out a killer outfit.

Ten minutes later when Saguru stomped back into the room in a towel, wearing a deep scowl on his face and smelling like fresh mountain dew on pine trees, the entire place was spotless. Everything was back in its proper place, and it was as if the past two weeks had never happened.

Saguru blinked. "You even made my bed."

"What are friends for?" Kaito giggled, taking immense pride in his work as a matchmaker. "Can't have my future sister-in-law thinking you're a slob and running for the hills, can we?"

Saguru's pleasantly surprised expression stiffened into a frown. "She's not coming up here to see it."

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "You want to have such a personal, embarrassing discussion downstairs in the living room where your mother can hear it? You can bet your bottom dollar that Baaya and I are going to be listening in for sure if you two talk downstairs, and what if your father unexpectedly comes home in the middle of it? Would you really be able to walk that off? That kind of utter mortification? And what about Sera-chan? How awkward!"

Saguru bit his lip and stared at Kaito. His eye twitched as he mentally reviewed all the different ways it was possible for one human being to snuff out the life of another. After a minute of taking stock of the options, he sighed, shaking his head in defeat.

He responded in a small, quiet voice. "I guess it's a good thing you cleaned my room for me since it's beginning to look like Sera-san will be coming up here for our chat after all. Ugh."

"Good," Kaito chuckled conspiratorially. "It's better that way. More privacy in case things get heated and there's some crying or shouting…or kissing or nudity."

"Mary, Mother of God!" Saguru gasped. "_Kuroba_! Nothing of the sort is… I mean… We're not even…! I wouldn't dare…! She doesn't even like me like that!"

"She will when she sees you in the outfit I've picked out!" Kaito sang, producing the clothing in question out of seemingly nowhere.

"Well and good," Saguru sighed, giving up gracefully. "The sooner I get out of this towel and into some real clothes, the better."

"You don't consider loincloths, togas, or kilts to be real clothes?" Kaito remarked in curiosity.

Saguru rolled his eyes. "And what have you picked out for me?"

Kaito tossed his detective a pair of tan slacks which Saguru gladly put on. They were a little on the tight side. At least, they were tighter than the clothes Saguru normally wore, but not too much more snug than the suits Saguru sometimes wore for court and other such business when he had to be taken seriously.

"These aren't my pants," Saguru observed. "I don't own a pair like this."

"Well, you do now." Kaito shrugged.

"Where did these come from?" Saguru demanded, almost getting hit in the face with the shirt Kaito tossed at him.

"Super trendy fashion designer in London sent you free samples…well, sent us both free samples since you won't take anything from her directly. She sends them to me, and I surreptitiously smuggle them into your extra closet in the guest room," Kaito confessed. "Put the shirt on already. You're gorgeous shirtless, but I think that's a little too much skin for mid-December."

"These are from my mother?" Saguru groaned, pulling the hooded shirt on over his head anyway. It was a creamy, off-white color, a hoody-style shirt with three-quarters length sleeves and little shoelace tassels in front. The neckline dipped slightly to show off his collarbone.

"These are from my mother?" Saguru grumbled once more, intently inspecting his appearance in the mirror.

"Yep, and you look damn good, Haku-chan! Helen-san sure knows what she's doing, huh?" Kaito prompted.

Gazing at his reflection, Saguru was reminded of the pictures of the male models on the walls of that one store in the mall…the ones that looked like they belonged in some kind of pornographic publication. "I look like…"

"You look like a Ralph Lauren model!" Kaito supplied.

Saguru's face blew up like one of Kaito's paint bombs, turning a marvelous shade of cranberry red. "No. That is the last thing I need. We've already had the whole discussion about whether or not I'm gay. I don't need to give her any reason to doubt me again."

"Haku-chan," Kaito called softly, coming over and placing his hands on Saguru's shoulders. He gently started kneading, trying to get his best friend to stop tensing up so much. "You look really good. Trust me. I _know_. You're smart and fun and sexy, and she's gonna see it too. You're awesome, and I think you two are a good fit for each other, so… just chillax, Saguru. You're gonna knock her socks off."

Saguru took a deep breath and nodded. He took a second to collect himself and then slowly broke out into a grateful smile. "Thank you for doing all this. You really are the best, Kaito."

"I know," Kaito tittered, giving Saguru's cheek a little pat. "Glad to know that _you've_ finally realized it, though."

Saguru rolled his eyes fondly as he shook his head. "Let's just go already…before Baaya scares her off."

"Haha… Right," Kaito replied, chewing on his bottom lip. "Yeah. We'd better hoof it."

…

They found Baaya and Masumi downstairs in the kitchen, getting all chummy over Saguru's baby pictures. It was a little surreal since they had expected a cold war to be going on between the two women but, when it came down to it, Kaito and Saguru were actually quite glad that they seemed to be getting along.

Be that as it may, Saguru was still scared stiff about speaking with Sera again. He wasn't sure where to start, and it didn't help that, standing there in the doorway and just looking at her, his heart constricted. It hurt to look at her because she was just so beautiful in every sense of the word. She was kind and honest and so driven to make sure that justice and truth won out at the end of the day. And he hadn't even mentioned how physically magnificent she was as a specimen of the female sex. It was painful to gaze at her from across the room and think that she might not ever be his. There was no question that he was at a disadvantage, and he was afraid of losing her.

Saguru was kind of glad when Kaito announced their presence for him. Saguru's throat felt dry, and he'd had no idea how to break the icy wall of silence between himself and Sera in the first place.

"Hey ladies! You really did end up playing nice after all!" Kaito chuckled in something close to glee. He had every confidence in his plan. "Awesome! Hey. Guess who I managed to drag out of his room?"

Baaya and Sera turned and caught sight of Hakuba standing there in the doorway. Baaya smiled at her son looking so dashing in the clothing that his biological mother had sent via Kaito.

Masumi, on the other hand, clammed up, bowing politely and greeting them formally. She kept her gaze down, suddenly too nervous to speak. She'd never really had _that_ problem before. Usually she ran at the mouth like an overflowing postbox, but…in this situation, she didn't want to say the wrong thing yet again and ruin her chances of reconciliation with Hakuba.

Sera kept her head down and began to shuffle her feet nervously when Saguru's footsteps approached.

"Hey, Sera-chan," Kaito called out. "Lookie who I brought! Don't you have something to say to him?"

Masumi bit the inside of her cheek and decided to suck it up. Kuroba was right. She'd come here to talk to a probably unwilling Hakuba. She'd practiced what she was going to say a dozen or more times while she was out on her runs, so it shouldn't be any different now.

Sera looked up to give her apology, but she stopped short when she actually caught sight of Hakuba Saguru. He looked different.

She wasn't quite sure if it was just because she hadn't seen him in two freaking weeks or if maybe it was the outfit, but…he really was a sight for sore eyes. Without stopping to think it out, in a typical Sera Masumi fashion, her body moved on its own, reacting to her feelings and emotions rather than her logical thoughts.

"Haku-chan!" she cried, dashing across the room and throwing her arms around his torso, gripping him tightly. "Haku-chan! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! I'm really, really sorry for everything that I said! I never meant to hurt you like that, and I missed you sooo much!"

After absorbing the impact of the Sera torpedo with a grunt of "Ooof." and a slight stumble backwards, Saguru froze up at the feeling of the girl he adored's arms wrapping around him.

Her words crashed down upon him like a wave, hitting him like a bolt of lightning on a clear day. He could hear the affection in her voice, and he knew for the first time that she cared about him, that he was truly important to her. After all, she'd _missed_ him.

But the middle of the kitchen was an awkward place to stand there hugging and trying to hold a conversations (especially in front of the eager ears and eagle eyes of both Kaito and Baaya). As Kaito had mentioned earlier, Saguru really didn't want to be having this conversation in front of an audience that could potentially end up containing his father, should Hakuba Senior arrive home during aforementioned discussion. Therefore, as reluctant as he was to separate from his crush, he realized that it was necessary.

"Sera-san? Shall we finish this conversation upstairs for privacy's sake?" he proposed.

Chuckling sheepishly and rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment for her rash behavior, Sera smiled and nodded, following along obediently as Saguru headed for the second floor.

…

Mikau: How was it? Sorry it's been so long since Hakuba and Sera have been in the same scene together, but I really wanted to work on them individually for a bit before bringing them back together. I wanted to establish Kaito and Sera's friendship as well as introduce Sera to Baaya and let Hakuba have some time to grieve so that this story isn't so rushed. I just feel like the whole thing is rushed because it's my belated NaNo project, so…I'm trying to take a little more time with it now. Thanks so much for reading guys! I look forward to your feedback! Take care! Until Tuesday!


	8. Patching Things Up

Mikau: Hello, hello! So nice to see you again! Happy Tuesday! I'm still sick, so Mummsie is making me go to the doctor today. Other than that, all is well. I was at puppy playtime last night, and this one guy my age who has a really super shy puppy was saying how he'd like to arrange something so that the pup could meet maybe just one or two other dogs so that she could get over her anxiety. I, naturally, volunteered Noiz to have a play date with the pup, so I gave the guy my number. And then he texted me later saying that maybe just the two of us could set something up sometime too. I think I just got asked out to coffee or something. Hahaha. That was unexpected. Anyway, you want to read about Hakuba and Sera's love lives, not mine, so on to the chapter—the long awaited reunion! And before I forget, thank you so, so much to all my reviewers from last time! I never imagined that this fic would be so popular. Thanks for the support everyone: Orange04, neonquincy1217, Kimmiko T, slacker (To answer your question, I think Akai will show up in the sequel. I'm just working on getting them together right now. We'll start throwing monkey wrenches like Akai in there once they're actually dating. Thanks!), GeekyGenius, Miss Emotion, outlogged, Detectivewriters (times four. Hi, Natsumi!), Willysfeather, HelioPwnz, and Late Bloomers!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Hakuba would at least be showing up in the background in episodes of MK1412. This is sad and disappointing, but they might be doing Green Dream for episode fifteen. Fingers crossed.

…

Chapter Eight: Patching Things Up

"S-So…" Saguru stuttered as he walked Sera down the hall. He cleared his throat, coming to a stop at the last door. "This is my room," he informed, more to fill the awkward silence than anything. He opened the door for her in a gentlemanly fashion and showed her in.

"Wow," she chuckled. "It's so tidy. Knowing you, I'd figured it would be but… This is a pretty cool setup you've got going here with the sofa and the coffee table and the microwave and mini fridge. Kind of like a college dorm room."

"Yes. It's more convenient that way, having everything I need up here," Saguru tentatively responded, standing in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets, unsure of what exactly he should be doing or where he should start.

Sera, however, who had been a little out of sorts down in the kitchen when she'd first seen him, bounded right over to the couch and made herself at home.

"Can I get you some tea or water or something?" Saguru decided to begin the conversation in his capacity as "gracious host".

The look of wonder at seeing such a marvelous bedroom slowly melted off of Sera's face as she remembered just what position she was in. "No. I'm fine," she replied politely, fiddling with the hem of her shorter than regulation uniform skirt. "Actually…just…sit down. We need to talk. I need to apologize."

"Not at all," Saguru assured, coming to sit on the couch beside her. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me, that you didn't even know you were hurting me. I'm actually rather surprised that you eventually figured it out. You've always seemed completely clueless when it comes to romance and affairs of the heart."

Knowing that it was true, Sera tried not to take it as an insult. "But… Even if I didn't mean to hurt you, that doesn't change the fact that I did, and I'm really sorry about that. I call myself a detective, but I'm so blind to the things happening right in front of me. I didn't even realize… Actually, what really happened was that other people had to tell me, but once they did let me know how badly I'd messed up, I really wanted to apologize to you for…for everything."

"You already have," Saguru chuckled softly. "And I'd rather not dwell, if you don't mind. I accept your apology…. Now…Kuroba was telling me that you were planning on considering my confession?"

Sera nodded hesitantly. "Look, you're an awesome guy, and I really like you. I feel really lucky to have you for a friend," she explained. "…but I honestly know nothing about dating and stuff like that unless it involves catching someone cheating for a client. I mean, I've always been a tomboy without much interest in falling in love, and I _do _have two older brothers, one of which was an FBI agent, so… I've never dated anyone."

Saguru's eyes widened. He was about to ask, "The FBI agent was the one that passed away, I hope?" but thought it utterly insensitive. _"You're horrible to even think that!" _he mentally scolded. Still, he'd have to do some investigating later. Having an FBI agent as a possible future brother-in-law was…intimidating to say the _very_ least.

Instead, he responded, "It's fine. I understand, so go ahead and take your time deciding. I'd rather you consider my confession seriously and thoroughly rather than feeling like you had to rush."

"Thanks," Sera replied with a soft smile. "Thanks. You're a really understanding, patient guy, and that's super cool."

Saguru met her gaze, blushed, and looked away, mumbling, "Well…some people are worth waiting for."

There was a beat in which Hakuba thought he might implode out of sheer mortification, but then Masumi dove at him, wrapping him in a hug as she laughed boisterously.

"Haku-chan, you are seriously the best!" she chuckled, extracting herself from his person. "Where do you learn to say stuff like that? Do you, like, take lessons or something?"

Suddenly it occurred to Sera that he might take her words the wrong way and get offended. The last thing she wanted was for him to think that she was being sarcastic.

She rushed to explain herself. "What I mean is…you're really cool, Haku-chan, and really sweet. You're just like some storybook prince or something. I mean…why do you even like me?" She smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as she squirmed.

"You're a beautiful human being, Sera Masumi," he announced in the general direction of the glass doors leading out onto the balcony. He was too embarrassed to declare it to her face. "…and I like you precisely because you're exactly the way that you are."

Sera blushed and laughed softly at his response. "Thanks. I'm really lucky to have such a great guy that likes me…."

He slowly turned to meet her gaze.

She smiled at him once more. "I promise that I'll think about your confession, so…Haku-chan, are we cool?"

"So long as it doesn't freak you out that I like you. I mean… so long as it's not awkward or anything." Hakuba replied nervously.

"No," she assured. "Not at all. I mean…so long as it's not hurting you being friends with me…me stringing you along like this while I try to figure things out." She bit her lip, feeling guilty not for the first time.

"No," he responded softly, hesitantly reaching out and resting his hand on top of hers.

She froze at his touch, surprised at the sudden contact. She could feel her face beginning to redden slightly.

"Actually, I don't imagine it will be easy or particularly pain free for me, but… I sincerely appreciate your honesty," he informed. "That makes it a lot easier for me. Not knowing one way or the other, or, even worse, being misinformed…I think that would be the most painful, so… Like I said, I'm grateful for your being straight with me."

"You're one of my best friends, Haku-chan. I owe you at least that much and a sincere apology on top of that," she replied sheepishly, ashamed of herself. She wished she could just give him an answer already. She wished she was a good enough detective to be able to unlock the mysteries of her own heart, to solve the riddle that was her feelings.

He patted the back of her hand gently and then retracted his own. "You don't dwell on it either. I'm a patient man."

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

"So…we're okay, Sera-san?" Saguru verified.

She nodded again. "Yeah. There's just this one thing…."

Saguru tensed. "And…what exactly would that be?"

She pressed her lips together as she looked him right in the eye. "Can I call you 'Saguru'?"

The blonde in question blinked, so shocked that it took him a minute to answer. "I…wouldn't have a problem with that."

Why would he? To hear his given name on those sweet lips…it would be heaven. He never got to hear his first name on a regular basis. Baaya used it every now and then, but mostly she called him things like 'sweetheart' or 'bocchama'. Saguru's father was hardly ever home to have a decent conversation with Saguru, and the only friends really close enough to call him by his given name were Kaito and Sera, but they had both taken to calling him "Haku-chan". Having her call him by his first name would be a nice change of pace for nearly a dozen different reasons.

"And…could you do me a favor?" Sera continued.

"Anything," he replied a little too quickly.

She smiled, and the grin reached all the way up into her eyes, making them sparkle more brilliantly than any stone that Kid had ever stolen. "Could you please call me 'Masumi' in return?" she requested.

"Of course," he breathed, stunned and sincerely honored by her invitation.

She laughed sheepishly, still smiling that gorgeous grin. "The truth is that most people call me 'Sera-san', even my close friends here like Ran-chan, Sonoko-chan, and you. Even when I was abroad, people called me 'Sarah'. I…I just want to be 'Masumi' with someone, and…you and I are close, right?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Yes," Saguru returned quickly, barely managing to contain his over-eagerness. "…Masumi-san."

"Thanks, Saguru-kun," she chuckled.

And then the door burst open, and Kaito bounded in, a pleased grin in place on his lips. "And now that we're all good again, let's go bowling to celebrate!"

Saguru picked up a throw pillow and beamed Kaito in the face with it. "I can't believe you, Kuroba! What the hell is the matter with you!? Listening in on a private conversation like that…the nerve!"

Kaito shrugged. "Someone has to make sure that you two end up together," he snorted, pretending to be morally outraged by the fact that he'd been hit with the pillow.

"Well that's her decision, now isn't it?" Saguru grumbled, getting to his feet and turning to offer his hand to Sera. "Would you like to go bowling, Masumi-san, or have we detained you long enough this evening?"

Sera smiled, and high fived the hand Saguru had reached out before standing up on her own. "I'd actually love to hang out with you two. Let me just call my roommate to let them know I'll be home later than I thought."

"Excellent. Go ahead," Saguru replied with a smile before turning to glare down his best friend. "I still can't believe you."

Kaito came to Saguru's side and pinched the blonde detective's cheek. "Oh, more than believing, you expected it," Kaito snickered. "It's exactly like me to eavesdrop on a conversation like this. Besides, like I said, someone has to look after you two."

Saguru rolled his eyes and wondered not for the first time why he was best friends with this kind of person. And then he remembered finding out about the gunmen and the danger Kid was in, getting to know the real Kuroba Kaito and slowly opening up to the other teen. Then there was the fact that Kaito was only overbearing, stifling, nosey, and obnoxious because he was worried about Saguru. Really it was only the bad personality that made it hard for Saguru to stand his dearest companion.

"Thanks, Kuroba," Saguru muttered under his breath. "but do try to be a little less invasive, will you? If you keep it up with all of this talk of Masumi-san and me ending up together, you're going to make her uncomfortable. It's up to her to decide if or when anything at all of a romantic nature happens between us. I won't have you pressuring her. She's to have all the time in the world to make her choice."

"Fine, fine," Kaito sighed, wanting nothing more than to lock them in a room together overnight and be done with it. He knew they were going to end up together eventually. He could tell. Why not just get it over with already? He shook his head at Saguru and his masochistic idealism.

"It's really okay, Saguru-kun," Sera broke in after she'd finished her call. "Kai-chan's just worried about you, and I really don't mind. It doesn't bother me," she assured.

"Give it time. It will," Saguru sighed. "Shall we?"

"I'm ready when you are!" Sera announced with child-like enthusiasm. "So long as you're prepared to lose, because I'm gonna mop the floor with the both of you."

"Oh, bring it, Masumi-chan. 'Cause it is _so_ on," Kaito cackled.

"Right then." Saguru resisted the urge to massage the bridge of his nose. He'd always known that bringing the two of them together would be an enormous headache on his part. They were going to be the best of friends so long as Sera never found out about the whole Kid thing and decided to take her revenge once and for all. "Was there a place that you had in mind, Kuroba?"

"Absolutely!" Kaito reported eagerly. "There's a little place not too far from here that actually has a small arcade too. They have a couple shooting games and foosball and air hockey. It's a total blast!"

"Ah." Saguru nodded, recognizing the description. "The place Keiko-san goes to play cheap zombie games."

"That's the one!" Kaito confirmed.

"It's right around the station, yes? You go ahead and lead the way, though."

Sera's smile waned slightly. "Who's 'Keiko-san'?" she asked out of curiosity. She'd never heard Saguru mention the girl before, but if he was calling her by her given name, she must be someone close to him. It was strange that Masumi had never heard of this other girl before.

"Why? You jealous?" Kaito tittered as they headed down the steps and out the front door with a brief explanation and many thanks tossed over their shoulders at Baaya.

Masumi was about to blush and deny it when Kaito continued: "Keiko is my childhood friend's best friend. She's a girl in our class who's a little quirky. No competition for you, by the way, just in case you really were concerned."

"Kuroba," Saguru growled softly in warning as they walked towards the station.

"It's fine," Sera attempted to laugh it off. "Nah, Kai-chan. I was just wondering because I'd never heard Saguru-kun mention that name before. Are you guys close with her? I mean… Do you guys hang out?"

"She's part of a group that Haku-chan and I sometimes tag along with. I wouldn't say that we're particularly close with her or anything," Kaito replied honestly with a little shrug of the shoulder. "Take the next left."

Sera nodded, taking a moment to dissect the information. "Are either of you two close with anyone else in the group?"

Kaito shrugged, not meaning to cut Saguru out of the conversation but replying for the both of them out of habit.

It actually worked better that way for Saguru at the moment. He was still feeling the effects of his recent case of emotional whiplash. It was good that he and Masumi had made amends, and he was seriously very pleased (overjoyed even) that she had promised to consider him as a potential romantic partner, but…there was a lot of pain at the same time. It was hard to be around her and still not be any closer. Alright, maybe the change in the way that they were calling each other was indicative of progress, but…he still felt like there was nothing concrete he could hold onto with her. There was no stable ground to stand on.

"Haku-chan isn't particularly close with anybody," Kaito replied to Sera's query as they walked along the narrow side street lined with a dozen or so mom and pop stores: grocers, bakers, florists, bookshops, and small cafes. "As for me, there's Aoko…. We used to be super tight, but…the past two years or so we've kind of drifted apart. We're okay, though. I think we're each moving on in our own way, but… And then there's Akako who I am as close to as I ever wish to be. She's a witch," Kaito explained.

"Kuroba, stop saying things like that! You're going to have people believing bad things about Koizumi-san," Saguru scolded.

Kaito rolled his eyes and reiterated under his breath in Sera's direction, "She really is a witch. She talks to Lucifer and casts spells and the whole shebang."

Sera's mouth dropped open. "Seriously? …Nuh-uh. No way. There's no way."

"Seriously," Kaito promised, coming to a stop in front of an unimpressive storefront with a door painted the poison green color of a dart frog. "We're he~re," he sang.

…

Mikau: I feel meh about this chapter. Did you like it? I hope you liked it. It wasn't horrible, but I'm just not satisfied with it. I think further chapters will help them work out the rest of their feelings, though. Hakuba and Sera are both sort of awkward babies when dealing with the way they feel, so I didn't think a really dramatic confrontation would have been fitting. Look forward to coming chapters in which they continue to smooth things out and figure out where they stand with one another. Well, let me know what you thought, and thanks so much for hanging in there with me. Hopefully this chapter wasn't disappointing. Have a great New Year's, and I'll see you on Friday!


	9. Honesty

Mikau: Hi there everybody! Happy New Year! Hopefully your 2015 is off to a good start. I've got a super long chapter for you today, so I hope you enjoy it. I just went bowling the Tuesday before Christmas, and it was super fun. It was also a good reference for this chapter. As you probably know, it does not take nearly as much time to bowl as the characters take this chapter, but there were a lot of important conversations that I wanted them to have, so…let's all just ignore the unrealistically long time it takes for them to take their shots, shall we? Thanks. And thanks so much to all of my fabulous reviewers: Detectivewriters, DragonAce1999 (Hi, Starlight!), slacker, neonquincy1217, Miss Emotion, Kimmiko T, Bunnyz-chan, GeekyGenius, and Orange04!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Crystal Mother only would have been animated once. It's not a bad chapter, but I honestly don't feel like seeing it animated for, what? A third time?

…

Chapter Nine: Honesty

Sera took a look at the miniscule bowling alley arcade that Kaito had brought their little group to, and she decided that it didn't look like much. It was a good thing that she reserved her judgment until after they'd gotten inside, though. The place wasn't spectacular, but it was adequate with dozens of arcade games and five lanes on which to bowl. The best part about the establishment was that it was cheap without letting the quality suffer unreasonably so.

They paid for their shoes and got set up on lane number three, picked up their balls and input the player order into the system.

"You wanna go first?" Kaito offered, typing in "White" before Saguru could answer.

"The lady should go first," Saguru replied anyway, fixing Kaito with a rather severe glare.

Kaito smirked and retorted cheekily, "Yeah. That's why I asked if you wanted…" He trailed off as the glare intensified to a terrifying degree. "Or were you insinuating that I should go first?" He pursed his lips and pouted. "Haku-chan, just because I dress up like a woman, that doesn't make me any less of a man."

Hakuba did not respond verbally but instead let his eyes issue the rebuke and the threat for him.

Kaito looked over his shoulder at Sera. "Well I know he's not calling you a girl," he sniffed, turning back to Saguru. "Haku-chan, Masumi-chan is the most manly of the three of us."

Saguru was not amused.

Sensing that he had lost this round, Kaito looked back at the player input screen. "Okay," he conceded. "She can go after you." He pursed his lips and thought for a minute before typing "Indigo" and then, for himself, "Black".

Masumi frowned. "I get the black and the white parts of _your_ names, guys, but where did 'indigo' come from for me? My name doesn't have a color kanji in it."

"It comes from the 'Sera' part," Saguru explained, picking up his ball and getting ready to bowl. "It's a stretch, but 'seiran' is 'indigo blue'."

Sera nodded and took her seat, mollified. "Indigo, huh?"

While Hakuba approached the lane to study the ever loving hell out of it before actually taking his shot, Kaito turned around and smirked at Masumi, looking as intimidating as a hungry wolf once more.

"So." He let the word go with a pop of his lips. "How's it going?" His question was simple and straightforward, but Masumi couldn't help but feel that there was a trap hidden underneath.

"What do you mean?" Sera shifted uncomfortably.

Kaito smiled and chuckled in amusement. "Nothing more than what I said."

"Why do I feel like you're still screwing with me for hurting Saguru-kun?" Sera sighed.

"Because I kind of am." Kaito shrugged, maintaining his smile. "Look, I like you a lot, and I seriously think you're good for Saguru in the long run. I _do_ want to be your friend…. I know you didn't mean for all this to happen, and I know you feel super guilty about it, but…regardless, you really hurt him. He's my best friend, so, yeah, a part of me is still really pissed at you, even though things are pretty cool now."

Kaito took a deep breath and looked across the room at Saguru just as the blonde was taking his first shot. "I used to be extremely childish. Sometimes I'm still that way, but…in this case, I'm pushing my own feelings aside so that I can focus on making sure that Haku-chan's happy. What that basically boils down to is trying to forget how upset I am while trying to ensure that we all three get along nicely. There are times when emotions might leak through, so you might get some passive aggressive vibes…or, honestly, pranking, from me, but…know that I'm doing my best to make things work, okay? …And know that I don't hate you."

"…Thanks," Sera responded softly. "I'm really grateful for your honesty."

The conversation had to be paused here because that was precisely when Saguru came back into hearing range in order to retrieve his ball so that he could take his second turn.

"Nasty split," Kaito winced in commiseration. "Think you can get them both?"

Saguru bit his lip, picking up his ball. "Maybe. It's been a while since I last practiced, so…even if I do the calculations right, it might not…" Saguru scrunched up slightly in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his neck as he bowed slightly. "Sorry this is taking so long. I forgot to warn you that I take a substantial amount of time to do various calculations when I bowl."

"Take your sweet time, Haku-chan," Kaito urged, waving Saguru away with a "no worries" grin. "Masumi-chan and I were just chatting."

"Yeah," Sera seconded Kaito's statement, smiling encouragingly. "Take all the time you need. We're having fun. Keep up the good work, Saguru-kun!"

"Thank you." With a blush and a bow, Saguru headed back to the lane to attempt the split.

"So…" Kaito began again. "How's it going? Are you satisfied with the outcome of your talk with Hakuba?"

She thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Yeah. Everything's wonderful on my end. I mean… Saguru-kun's being _way_ too lenient with me. He wasn't even properly angry about what I did. I kind of wish he'd chew me out or get angry or something," she sighed. "The only thing I'm really concerned about is whether or not he's actually okay…if he's okay with things the way they are. Maybe I jumped the gun coming so soon. Maybe he needed more time, but I came back way, way too early, and…yeah. I'm worried about him and what effect my presence is going to have on him, especially when I'm leading him on like this with my indecision, but…I feel a little better knowing that you're taking care of him…that you always take care of him."

Kaito nodded, glowing with pride. "He's in _very_ good hands, you'd better believe it. But…yeah. We'll…We'll just have to keep an eye on him and be extra careful." Kaito bit his lip. "There is one thing, though. It's just…you're not doing anything wrong at the moment, you know?"

Sera blinked, and her head tilted to the side slowly. "What do you mean?"

Kaito shook his head. "Listen. What you did before unknowingly, that was wrong, but this…now… You taking your time and seriously considering his confession, there's nothing wrong with that. It'd be bad if you just started dating him out of some sense of obligation. That wouldn't be fair to either of you, so…I like the current plan. I'm an instant gratification type of guy, so I really wish things would get moving along for you two already, but…I think that the way that you two are doing things is smart, so you take all the time you need, and I'll do my best to deal with him and his insecurities and pain and stuff until you have an answer. What I'm trying to say is don't feel bad. You're doing the right thing, and it'll be better for him in the long run this way."

"Thanks, Kai-chan," Sera returned gratefully, feeling at least some of the suffocating weight being removed from her chest. "That makes me feel a lot better about a lot of this, so…thank you for saying that…. It's really good talking to you. You're a good listener."

Kaito shrugged nonchalantly. "Growing up, it was just me and Mom, and my best friend as far back as I can remember was a girl, so…with no older male role models in my life, I'm afraid I turned out…a little… Well, let's just say that I've got the girl talk thing down." Kaito winked and gave her a playfully salute as Saguru returned, head hung in shame.

"Lighten up, Haku-chan!" Kaito called. "At least you got one. Nine pins are better than eight, you know."

"Still. Ten would have been better." Saguru collapsed with a thud onto the hard plastic bowling alley seat.

"It's alright, Saguru-kun," Sera tried to console him as she prepared to take her turn. "You'll get it next time."

"Just watch her get a strike," Kaito snickered as the female of their group got up and grabbed her ball.

Once Masumi was out of hearing distance, Kaito turned his attention to Saguru and quietly asked, "Hey. You doing alright, buddy? You didn't really get much of a chance to get over the heart attack of her showing up on your doorstep and seeing her again after two weeks. How ya feelin'?"

Saguru hummed pensively as he thought about it. How exactly _did_ he feel? "…I'm a bit all over the place at the moment, but I expect my emotions and feelings on the subject will vary wildly depending on the day and maybe even time of day, at least for another week or so maybe."

"Yeah…" Kaito sighed. "I don't blame you. This whole thing has been super complicated. But you know that I'm there for you, right? That you can call me up in the middle of the night if you need to?"

Saguru looked up at the magician and gave a tired smile. "Thanks. I…I don't know what to say. I really appreciate you helping me through this, you know?"

Kaito shrugged, looking at Masumi as she took her first shot and knocked down half of the pins. "It's not really a big deal. You were there for me when I was first kind of figuring out that I couldn't be with Aoko so long as Kid was around. When I realized that I couldn't make her happy like this and that I had to choose between the fate of the world and my own happiness, so…. I owe you, man. I want to be there for you too."

Saguru reached out and patted Kaito reassuringly on the shoulder as Sera returned to retrieve her ball.

"Everything…okay, guys?" she asked tentatively. She wasn't sure if she should interfere. She got the feeling that she'd walked in on an extremely heavy, personal conversation.

"We could ask you the same thing, Masumi-chan," Kaito teased, quickly putting on his cheerful poker face over the anguish and regret he was actually feeling. "How are you going to mop the floor with us if you only knock over half the pins? Careful you don't miss on your second shot." He winked playfully as he laughed at her. "I'll have to point and laugh at you, if you get a gutter ball."

"I'll show you," Masumi snorted and laughed, getting all fired up at the competition. "Just watch!" She picked up her ball and marched back out to the lane, carefully lining up her shot.

As soon as her back was turned, the mischievous expression slid right off of Kaito's face and shattered as it hit the floor. "I think Aoko looks happier with that Yamada guy…. Are they officially dating yet?"

"Kaito…" Saguru cooed. "I think…if you really wanted to…you could tell her about all this. The Organization, why you do the things you do. She may be absolutely furious at you for a good decade or so, but…I think when she calms down she'll be able to understand and forgive you. It might take a long time to recover her trust in you, but… It's not too late if you still wanted to be with her. I think…I think she'd want to know. She deserves to know."

Kaito shook his head sadly. "Not now. Not while I've still got work to do. Not while those slugs are still out there. It's bad enough that you're involved, Saguru. If she tried to help, if she got in the way and they killed her… I could never… I wouldn't… And if I told her and she went into a blind rage and told the police… Look, a lot of people's lives are riding on this, and I can't…" He looked up at Saguru and begged the other teen to understand with his eyes. "Look, it's better for everyone if she doesn't know until after it's all over."

"Kuroba, that could take another two, ten years," Saguru replied as gently as possible. "She'll have moved on by then."

Kaito looked away and shrugged. "Then it's better that way. I can't have her wait for me for any longer, and I'm not in a position to be with her as I am now. It's better if she moves on and finds happiness with a good, honest guy."

"Kuroba, _you're_ the best man I know."

Kaito rolled his eyes. "I could say the same about you."

"Do you really think it's your place to decide what's best for her? To make decisions about her life without any input from her? Do you think that's fair? It sounds to me like the real problem is that you don't actually trust her."

Kaito snorted softly. "What do you want from me? The world's not fair. If it were, I'd still have a dad, you'd of been born to a warm, loving family, and Aoko's mom would have stuck around. I'm eighteen, Hakuba, and I feel like I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders with my whole suicidal crusade. I'm just doing the best I can with what life has served me."

Saguru wanted to comment on the typical, over the top, melodramatic nature of the other teenager's words, but he felt that now wasn't the time, especially since what Kaito had said wasn't particularly untrue. Instead he decided upon, "Sometimes that's all you can do, but… Kuroba, I just want you to be happy with your decisions."

Kaito shook his head, looking up and smiling sadly at his best friend. "Let's just work on making you happy for the time being, okay?"

Saguru never got a chance to reply because at that moment Masumi came trotting back, haughtily celebrating her spare. "Take that, Kuroba!" she sang in triumph.

Suddenly a blazing grin was back on Kaito's face. "Not too shabby, Sera," Kaito chuckled, getting to his feet and picking up his own ball. "Prepare to be one-upped." Like a proud rooster, Kaito confidently approached the lane, head held high and chest out. And then he came to a stop and studied each of the pins extensively.

"Does he take a long time to bowl too?" Sera asked sotto voce.

Saguru shrugged. "Not especially. I have a feeling that he's stalling in order to force the two of us to converse," Saguru replied honestly.

"Oh," Sera responded in a small voice. A full minute later when it became apparent that Kaito would not be bowling anytime soon, Sera broke the silence between them with, "So…what should we talk about?"

Saguru hummed thoughtfully. "Whatever you want to talk about, I suppose."

Masumi glared half-heartedly at her fellow detective.

"Would you be interested in discussing the lovely December weather that we've been having lately?" Saguru teased.

Sera rolled her eyes. "How about no? Fine…." She smiled impishly and prodded his shoulder. "Ask me anything."

With a soft laugh he inquired, in jest, "What's your deepest, darkest secret?"

Her brow furrowed, and she pursed her lips, thinking about everything she was hiding. There were so many secrets. Secrets about her parents, her brothers, her "roommate", why she was back in Japan, where she had been before that, her past in general… The list kept going on and on.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not free to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets because they're not mine alone to tell," Masumi finally replied, her voice just above a whisper. "I guess what I can say is that…I came to Japan to figure out what happened to my brother, to Shuu-nii. What I'm discovering by going over what he was working on—what I can find out about it, anyway, since the investigation is kind of classified—is that…"

She bit her lip and hesitantly looked up at Saguru. "There are wolves in this world, you know…. And they're everywhere: in the police, in government. It's more widespread than anyone knows, and I don't know how I'm going to make a difference."

Realizing that the things she was saying probably sounded odd to Saguru who most likely knew nothing about the people her brother had been chasing…the organization dealing in eternal life and undetectable poisons when even Sera herself was mostly in the dark, she put on a goofy grin and laughed sheepishly.

"Sorry." She began to rub the back of her neck nervously. "The stuff I'm talking about probably sounds pretty weird to you, doesn't it?"

Meanwhile, Saguru was frowning deeply. "You're talking about isolated incidents or is this a whole ring of corruption? I'd imagine the latter if the FBI is involved. Masumi-san, are you sure that this is something you should be poking your nose into?"

Sera shrugged her left shoulder. "Probably not, but I wouldn't be a detective if I kept my nose on my face where it belongs. Besides, I'm not in any immediate danger, and there are safety nets in place. I've got emergency backup, so you don't have to worry about me, Saguru-kun," Sera announced, thinking of Edogawa Conan. She knew she could count on Kudo-kun to have her back and keep her out of harm's way going up against the Organization.

Saguru pursed his lips, looking like he wanted to say more, rip the investigation wide open and put himself there at her side as her bodyguard. He opened his mouth to try to dissuade her from getting any further involved, but Masumi cut him off.

"Look, Saguru-kun. I'm really sorry, but I can't say anything more about it. I really am going to be fine, though, so you can rest easy. If at any time I feel like I'm in over my head, I'll make sure to call you, okay?"

"I would appreciate it," Saguru conceded, knowing that he would get no more information from her at this time, so it would be foolhardy and annoying to continue to press her. It was a big step for her to share the details she already had, and he shouldn't push his luck any further.

It grew quiet in the bowling alley once more as, in lieu of the conversation, their focus shifted to observing Kaito who seemed to be having a rather serious discussion with the bowling ball about applied mathematics and release technique.

When they'd watched the magician for another good minute and it still didn't look like this show was getting on the road any time in the near future, Sera tentatively asked this question, "What about you, Saguru-kun?"

Hakuba blinked, looking to his right at her. "Sorry?"

"What's _your_ deepest darkest secret?" she demanded, chuckling like a little wood imp that had just played a particularly clever prank on a passing minstrel.

Saguru shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms and legs and then looking away. "Are you sure? I mean…did you really want to know? I'll…tell you, but…it's not a very cheerful secret."

"That's okay. Mine wasn't either," Sera replied with a shrug. "And I promise not to laugh at you or anything."

"I'm more concerned about the pity," Saguru sighed under his breath, taking ahold of one of the three-quarters length sleeves on his shirt. "My secret is that there's a very good reason why I never wear short sleeves, even during the sweltering heat of the summer."

He pulled his sleeve past the elbow and all the way up, showing her the scars there.

Masumi's jaw slackened, and her eyes widened slightly in alarm. "That's…" She slowly, hesitantly reached out to touch the marks, gently skimming her fingertips over the old wounds. "What happened?" she asked, even though she knew the answer. She'd seen marks like that before, but she was hoping that he'd give her a different response. "Was it a case or something?"

He shook his head and replied in a small voice. "I did that."

She looked up at him, searching his face for a reason. All she found was raw pain and the intense fear of rejection.

"I started cutting when I was fourteen," he confessed, just waiting for her to pull away.

Instead she scooted closer, fingers tightening their hold on his forearm. "W-Why?" Her voice was shaking, her body too.

He licked his lips nervously and gulped before the words would come out. "I… I was too much of a coward to actually kill myself, so…"

Her gaze fell to the scars once more as her eyes burned and her lips pulled together into a thin line. She grabbed his other sleeve and forced it up.

There were scars there as well, similar to the other arm. The wounds were all old, though. There weren't any fresh cuts.

"Anywhere else?" she demanded, managing to sound commanding, even though her voice was still trembling. "Are there cuts anywhere else?"

He shook his head, a little surprised by her behavior. He would have thought that she'd be uncomfortable with all of this, that she'd want nothing to do with this and change the subject, but… "Just my arms."

She nodded and sighed in relief. "Good." Taking a deep breath, she looked back up at him, looking him in the eyes. "So you don't do it anymore, right?" Her tone was miffed and slightly hurt, but her eyes showed fear. They were begging him, pleading. She was afraid of losing him. "You stopped?"

He smiled fondly at her and nodded. "Yes. Not too terribly long after coming here, actually. Because of him." Saguru nodded towards Kaito (who was now preforming some sort of meditation ritual to transfer his chi into the ball so that he could control it at long range). "He once knocked me out and stole all of my clothes, and that was when he saw the marks. We had a very serious discussion once I awoke about self-respect and loving yourself and finding healthy outlets for your feelings. Frankly, none of that really stuck because I'm still not the most self-respecting, self-loving, emotionally healthy person, but…the thing that really affected me the most was that _he_ cared. As you may have noticed, I have a great amount of respect for Kuroba, so…the fact that someone that I begrudgingly admired truly cared about my health and wellbeing… It made me think that I should endeavor to take better care of myself so that I'd be better suited to being his rival."

Sera chuckled and shook her head, forced to laugh despite the gravity of the present situation and conversation topic.

"What?" Saguru asked apprehensively.

She shook her head again, smiling. "Nothing. It's just…and sorry if this is a sore subject, but…you and Kai-chan… You two are so cute. I can't believe you stopped cutting because of him…_for_ him. It's… You two are super tight. Like brothers. It's really cool."

Saguru blushed and shrugged a shoulder, rubbing the back of his neck. "I have to admit that, yes, that's much how I think of him—the brother I never had but always wanted."

"Well, I'm glad that he was there for you," Masumi sighed, a mix of fatigue and relief. "I…" She pursed her lips, considering the ramifications of her next move. She only thought about it for a few seconds before deciding to hell with it and throwing her arms around Saguru anyway. "Saguru-kun, I'm really glad that you're here. I'm grateful that I got to meet you 'cause you're a really awesome person, and the world really is a better place with you in it, so…don't be sad anymore, and don't hurt yourself again, okay?" She pulled back slowly and looked up at him with those pleading olive eyes once more.

He smiled gently back at her. She was so cute and child-like and sincere, and the very thought that he was important to her, if only just in his capacity as a friend, made his heart swell. "Don't worry. I promised Kuroba that I'd come talk to him first if I ever felt like cutting again, and I've kept that promise, even when I was sorely tempted to just take the easy way out…. And now I'm promising you too, Masumi-san. I'll remember that I'm not just hurting myself but the people that care about me too before I try anything like that again."

"Un," she agreed, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly.

At that moment, Kaito finally threw the ball, taking down all ten pins in one decisive strike.

It was an appreciated distraction for Masumi because at that time she had just been wondering in horror if what she had done to Hakuba those two weeks ago had at any time caused him to consider hurting himself. She felt sick and guilty all over again.

…

Mikau: Surprise! Yeah…for those of you that have never read my Hakuba before, he usually struggles with some kind of issues relating to depression. It goes along with my headcanon that he's had a rough family life and trouble fitting in, making friends, and just relating to others in general. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the longer chapter today. I feel like lots of stuff happened. Have a great day, and I'll see you on Tuesday!


	10. Brotherly Love

Mikau: Hello everyone! Happy T—wait. No. Yes, it's Monday. My work schedule got screwed up a little this week because my family is getting a new back door, so I have no one to babysit my puppy children, so I'm working tomorrow instead. Which makes it a little impossible to post the new chapter at my regular Tuesday slot. So here you go. Happy Monday! Before we get started, I want to take a moment to truly thank all of my awesome reviewers. I got, like, five or six reviews the first hour after I posted on Friday, and that really made my day. You all rock. Thanks for your support, DragonAce1999, neonquincy1217, Orange04, Detectivewriters, Kimmiko T, Willysfeather, Bunnyz-chan, and Miss Emotion! Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the codenames would either flowers or figures from Greek mythology. But Kaito would probably still do the same amount of cross-dressing. He dresses as a girl a lot. Has anyone else noticed this?

…

Chapter Ten: Brotherly Love

After his long drawn-out strike, Kaito strutted back to the seating area wearing a smug grin. "How do you like me now, Masumi-chan?" He snorted haughtily. "Take that."

"I'll get you back next time," Sera retorted half-heartedly, still shaken by thoughts of the secret Saguru had just shared with her about how he had been a cutter. She was still wondering if her carelessness two weeks ago had tempted Saguru at all to return to harming himself instead of dealing with his problems.

Kaito raised an eyebrow slightly. "Where's your enthusiasm?" he teased, sitting to her left and stretching his arm out around the back of her uncomfortable, plastic bowling alley seat. "Has my epic strike shaken your confidence, Masumi-chan? That was a pretty awesome spare you scored before. You'll at least come in second," Kaito snickered with a cheerful grin.

"Let's not discount me entirely, shall we?" Saguru snorted, standing up to grab his ball and take his turn. "I'm only just a bit behind. I'll catch up in no time."

"Let's hope so," Kaito snorted. "I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of the girl you're trying to impress."

Saguru rolled his eyes.

Kaito winked.

With a shake of his head, Saguru picked up his ball and approached the lane.

"So…" Kaito whispered, leaning in and invading Sera's personal space. "I'm jealous of you."

Masumi blinked rapidly, scooting back slightly so that she wouldn't be nose to nose with Kaito as she turned to face him. "Me? Why would you be jealous of me, Kai-chan?"

Kaito turned his attention towards Saguru who was doing some quick calculations and taking his shot. "He's known you, what? Two to three months? And he's already telling you that sort of stuff? Private stuff like that? I knew him for six months before I found out about any of that, and he didn't even tell me. I _found out_ all on my own."

Sera shifted uncomfortably, not really knowing what to say. She hadn't asked for Saguru to open up to her like that. Well…okay. Technically she just had during their game of "ask me anything" when she'd asked him to tell her his deepest, darkest secret, but…he'd asked her first, darn it!

"I'm sorry, Kai-chan," she replied, feeling seven kinds of awkward. "I mean…I didn't…"

"And he thinks you're prettier than I am," Kaito continued in a nagging tone, making it sound as if this was an insult against his grandmother or something of that severity. "I'm a total double D knockout when I put on a dress—completely indistinguishable from an actual woman—and he thinks you're prettier than I am! He sees me in a dress all the time and doesn't bat an eye, but you can get away with dressing like a guy, and still…" Kaito sighed, hanging his head in defeat. "You don't even have any breasts, for crying out loud!"

Masumi frowned deeply, pursing her lips. "Like I keep saying, they're gonna pop out any day now! My mother has a huge rack, and I will too someday!"

Saguru, who had come back to the sitting area to retrieve his ball from the dispenser, caught most of their conversation seeing as they were having it at a rather elevated volume. He blushed as he cleared his throat and broke in, "If I may, Kaito, you're the uncontested winner if we're judging beauty on the world's standards, but the reason why I personally prefer her looks to yours is because, well, one, you're positively shameless. It's unsightly the amount of cleavage and thigh you expose, but, mainly…"

Saguru squirmed in embarrassment, looking away as he continued. "Masumi-san is more beautiful, in my opinion, because she has an inner beauty so bright that it shines through to the outside as well." Trying to keep his blush under control, he avoided looking at Sera and instead directed his gaze at Kaito. "Now, I thank you for breaking up the depressing atmosphere with your theatrics, Kuroba, but could you try to keep it down? I know there aren't any other customers, but I don't think the staff want to hear about your odd hobbies."

"Not a problem," Kaito chuckled, letting the subject drop. "It's my job to act as the comic relief. Speaking of comical, I can't believe you got another split. You suck, Haku-chan."

"Oh, shove off," Saguru grumbled.

"Hey, I bet you two pounds of glitter that you can't get a spare," Kaito tittered through a wide-mouthed, toothy grin.

"Two pounds of glitter?" Sera looked back and forth between the two boys in confusion.

Saguru pursed his lips. "…What color?"

"Guess." Kaito's mischievous smirk grew.

Saguru grimaced. "Hot pink?"

Kaito's smirk turned smug. "You get the spare, I don't use it. You don't get the spare, you take it next time. How's that sound?"

"What's all this about two pounds of glitter?" Masumi asked once more.

"Prince Charming over there is going to miss the split and find himself pranked, covered in two pounds of hot pink glitter," Kaito baited. "Isn't that right, Haku-chan?"

"Just you wait," Saguru seethed, grabbing his bowling ball and marching out to the lane.

"That's my boy," Kaito chuckled softly, elbowing Sera in the side. "Just watch. This is going to be impressive."

She smiled fondly, shaking her head at the magician. "You egged him on so that he'd play better?"

Kaito shrugged, feigning innocence.

She couldn't help but laugh. "You two really are like brothers, aren't you? You bug and pester the hell out of each other, but you guys really care, don't you?"

Kaito smiled as he watched the British detective furiously making calculations. "You could say that."

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute or two, waiting for Saguru to bowl, but at that time it became apparent that they'd probably better pick a new topic of conversation. This was going to take a _looong_ time because Saguru was determined to get the split, therefore, he was going to be at the calculations for a good while still.

"Hey, Kai-chan?" Sera began hesitantly.

"Hm?" Kaito hummed in response, still looking at Saguru with his furrowed brow and intense gaze.

"So, earlier you mentioned dressing up like a woman, and I was just wondering…um…are you really a crossdresser, Kai-chan?" Sera held her breath, hoping that she hadn't said the wrong thing.

"Oh," Kaito chuckled nervously. "Uh…sort of, I guess. I mean…it kind of started out as something that I did from time to time just to prove that I could, but…now sometimes…you know. I sort of have to for…um…. Well, you know," Kaito laughed. He'd gotten a little careless. He'd been caught up in trying to make the evening go smoothly for Saguru, trying to make a fun, light-hearted environment, and he'd let something suspicious slip in front of the female detective.

She blinked cluelessly at him. "Why? Why do you 'have' to? Is it like…are you some kind of escort or something?"

Kaito nearly fell out of his chair. "No! No. Nothing like that." Kaito grimaced, racking his mind for a good excuse. And then it occurred to him that the truth, or some version of it, might be better than anything else he could come up with.

He smiled slyly and leaned in to whisper in her ear. "So, a couple months ago, I started doing undercover work for the FBI. Sometimes I have to put on a dress, but I look damn good in pretty much anything, so it's all good."

"You're an FBI agent?" Sera whispered loudly, eyes widening. "If you're working with the FBI here in Tokyo, then maybe you've heard of my brother!"

"I'm actually not an agent," Kaito admitted sheepishly. "I'm not really involved in much more than recon, actually, and I'm still new-ish, so…and I'm…more of a witness than anything. I mean…I've got handlers, so…" Kaito chewed on his lip nervously.

"Well…" Sera hummed thoughtfully, feeling a little frustrated that she hadn't really found a lead after all. She felt like she'd been working so hard for so many months with very little to show for it.

She didn't get a chance to ask any further questions, however, because just then Saguru finally finished his calculations and took the shot, sending the seven pin flying into the ten pin and knocking them both down.

"Yes! Eat that, Kuroba!" Saguru turned and laughed triumphantly.

"Nice. See? I knew you had it in you," Kaito chuckled as he slow clapped for his friend. He was kind of glad for the interruption too. He didn't need a jeet kune do practicing detective that he had made very, very angry as Kid to start asking him why exactly he was acting as a witness and going undercover for the FBI.

"That was awesome, Saguru-kun!" Masumi grinned and clapped along with Kaito. "I don't know that I could have done that. That was such a difficult shot."

"It's just a matter of force, coefficient of friction, angle of release, and…well. You know. Cool nerd stuff," Saguru chuckled proudly as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Best of luck with your shot."

"Thanks!" She held her hand up for a high five as she passed on her way to pick up her own ball.

Saguru turned his gaze towards Kaito and shook his head. "I should have known you were just trying to get a rise out of me in order to get me fired up enough to make the shot just to spite you. You're truly devious, you know that?"

"Oh, I would have covered you in two pounds of hot pink glitter if you'd missed," Kaito snickered as Hakuba took a seat next to him. "After all, now that you're feeling better about your recent heartbreak, I'm finally allowed to be pissed at you."

Saguru frowned. "What did I do?" He couldn't remember anything particularly bad. Nothing really stuck out. They hadn't seen too terribly much of each other in past two or so months thanks to Saguru's infatuation with Masumi, so… "Oh." Saguru finally got it.

"Good," Kaito snorted. "It seems like you know what you did after all. So how are you going to make up your recent neglect to me?"

"What do you want?" Saguru inquired in a straightforward, businesslike manner.

Kaito stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "Well an 'I missed you so much I could hardly stand it' for starters would be nice."

"I missed you so much I could hardly stand it," Saguru repeated obediently. "You know, I _did_ see you from time to time over the past ten weeks. We do go to school together, and we did hang out occasionally."

Kaito frowned, his face plainly stating, "You are such an idiot. That's not the point at all."

Saguru had long ago become fluent in Kaito's various gestures and facial expressions, and so he sighed in response. "I am never going to understand women."

Kaito raised an eyebrow, not getting the connection.

"I consider you a subgroup," Saguru helpfully explained, a cheeky grin clinging to his lips.

"Keep talking and I'll tell Masumi-chan all about everything you've ever sworn me to secrecy about starting with the stuffed animal, moving right on through the underwear, and finishing up with that time you and I got buried alive together," Kaito reported with a straight face, eyes narrowed and dangerous.

"You were going to tell her about all of that anyway at the first girls' night sleepover you got invited to…. Except for the last one. You wouldn't dare risk implicating yourself." Saguru rolled his eyes dismissively.

"You're seriously underestimating how pissed am I at you." The intense glare failed to fade from Kaito's eyes.

Saguru blinked at this uncharacteristic response and then took a minute to actually study Kaito. "Kuroba… You're serious," he observed in surprise. "I'm sorry. Did something happen? What's wrong?"

Kaito looked away with a contemptuous shrug. He crossed his arms and sighed, letting a little bit of the frustration go with the breath. "A lot of stuff. But we didn't get to talk about it whenever you did spend time with me because you were too busy talking about her. I get it, the whole crazy in love thing, so…I didn't want to interrupt. It didn't ever seem like a good time to talk to you about the stuff that I wanted to talk about, so…"

"Kaito," Saguru called softly, hoping that his companion would see fit to open up now.

Meanwhile, Sera was trying to bowl as quietly as possible. This turned out to be a rather tough job because bowling was an inherently loud sport with the heavy ball coming down with a thud on the hard wood and then crashing into the pins with a smack like a thunder crack.

She wanted to give the boys plenty of time and space to have their private discussion because it seemed like they were talking about some pretty weighty topics. She'd waited a good couple minutes before actually throwing the ball, using the time to try to figure out what exactly Hakuba and Kaito had been thinking about and doing when they had been bowling.

After she took her shot, she watched the ball go all the way down the lane until it hit only three of the pins in the back, left corner. She then walked very, very slowly back to the area where Kaito and Saguru were having their heavy conversation and retrieved her ball as quickly and unobtrusively as possible.

It worked. They didn't seem to have noticed her. They were too wrapped up in what the other was saying and doing. She returned to the top of the lane to plan her next throw extensively, trying to respect the boys' privacy and give them plenty of room.

Back on the benches, Kaito was considering giving in to Saguru's pleading gaze. More than considering it, he knew he was going to give in. He was planning on it. The only question was really when would it be most dramatic and beneficial to Kaito?

With a faked sigh, Kaito turned back to Saguru and began, "Remember how I told you about how Tantei-kun and Kudo Shinichi are working on the same thugs that I am? Well, it seems that Tantei-kun has finally realized that too. About three months ago, he introduced me to the FBI members that are working on the case along with him. Two months ago I started working with them as an undercover witness. They're sorting out all of the legal stuff, so…after all this, I can go back to having a future again. I don't have to worry about rotting in prison, so…I wanted to tell you, but…"

"Kaito, that's wonderful!" Hakuba replied joyously, pulling Kaito into a quick hug. "Goodness! Kuroba, I'm so happy for you! This is going to be great, and now I don't have to worry about you quite so much, if you're working with experienced backup. Thank God. This is absolutely fantastic!"

Once Saguru came down from the high of learning that his best friend would not be taken away to prison for the rest of his life, he sobered up and frowned as he realized, "Kuroba, I really have been unavailable to you, haven't I?"

"A little." Kaito shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it for once. Well, if he were being completely honest, he'd have to admit that he knew that the more he downplayed it himself, the bigger fuss Saguru would make over it.

"No. Seriously, Kuroba, I haven't been there for you at all since I met Masumi-san, have I?" Saguru softly insisted, horrified at the thought that he had abandoned his best friend for a girl.

"It's not that big of a deal." Kaito raised his shoulders again, inwardly smiling because his target was on the hook. He made a mental note not to let it get too far, though. He didn't want to make his best friend feel too guilty because really he did understand Saguru's recent lapse in judgment.

"No, Kuroba, it really is," Saguru pressed, determined to do some kind of penance.

"Then make it up to me with chocolate," Kaito suggested, mostly over it. All he'd really wanted was an apology and Saguru's attention in the first place. "And don't do it again. Are we cool?"

"Chocolate." Saguru nodded. "Right. I'll order you some of the really good stuff from France. Will that suffice?"

Kaito's eyes widened. "Richart?"

"Absolutely." Saguru suppressed a chuckle. He could just see the absolute bliss in Kaito's eyes at the thought of designer chocolates.

Kaito let out a trill of glee. "Come back to bed, Darling! You're out of the doghouse!"

"As tempting as that sounds, I believe I'll refrain." Saguru shook his head at the ridiculousness that was his best friend. "And? What else did I miss?"

Kaito smiled sheepishly, a light blush showing on his cheeks that he didn't even attempt to control. "Well, I've decided that I can either sulk forever about Aoko or I can go out there and find myself someone to spend the rest of my non-incarcerated life with, so…I have an official new love interest."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Is this from the list of previously unofficial love interests?"

Kaito grinned widely.

The eyebrow shot up a little higher. "What's her name?"

Kaito shifted slightly in discomfort at the question. "Well…Haku-chan, do you remember that conversation we had a little over six months ago about how I'm not particularly picky about the biological sex of my intendeds?"

Saguru blinked, and his eyes widened. "Oh. Yes. So…. What's…_his_…name?"

"Kudo Shinichi." Kaito smiled softly.

…

Mikau: Yes. More on that next chapter. As previously discussed, there won't be too terribly much KaiShin here in the main fic (sorry KaiShin army). It's probably going to be just enough of Kaito insisting that he's next in line for Shinichi if things ever go south with Ran to make Sera give up and go for Hakuba instead. Come to think of it, I'm being super mean to Kaito in the main fic, ruining things with Aoko for him and then putting him in a one-sided rebound crush. Shoot. Um…but I will be doing a KaiShin side fic eventually with how Shinichi and Kaito started working together and how Kaito became an undercover witness for the FBI, and the side fic will definitely have lots of KaiShin goodness, but the main story will just have them hanging out and Kaito flirting and being obnoxious. So that's the plan as far as the pairings go. I've got my hands full in this fic with just Hakuba and Sera, so the KaiShin will have to go in a separate fic. I can't decide if I want to work on the side fic now or if I want to save it until later when Conan actually shows up around what's looking to be chapter twenty in my outline. Hmm. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Drop me a line if you have the time! Thanks in advance! See you guys Friday!


	11. War of the Roses

Mikau: Hi there everyone! It's Friday! Hopefully you all had a fabulous week. Mine was a little different. I think the highlight of it was Facebook stalking potential jurors and looking up their criminal histories. I learned all sorts of stuff that I didn't actually want to know about perfect strangers like all of their traffic tickets, divorces…etcetera. Anyway, thanks so much to all of my reviewers from last time: Orange04, neonquincy1217, DragonAce1999, Willysfeather, Kimmiko T, Detectivewriters, Bunnyz-chan, Toukahana, and GeekyGenius (times two)! You're all dears.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, you would all get to hear Heiji boast about how great KYOTO was. But then he'd be completely different from the Heiji we all know and love.

…

Chapter Eleven: War of the Roses

"Kudo Shinichi," Kaito replied with a soft smile when Saguru asked him to name his latest romantic target.

Saguru blinked stupidly. "Wait. Kudo Shinichi… Isn't he already dating Sleeping Kogoro's daughter, Ran-san?"

"_Yes_," Sera finally broke into the conversation, having returned from scoring a measly six points. "And they're super in love, so I don't think you're going to be able to elbow your way into that relationship. Sorry, Kai-chan."

Kaito shrugged nonchalantly. "From what I've heard, Shin-chan told her more or less how he felt a year or so ago in London, but Mouri-chan has yet to be forthcoming with him about her own feelings. I mean, she's told Conan-kun straight up that she has feelings for him, but nothing official has been established between the parties themselves yet. And Shin-chan told me that he gets the feeling that Mouri-chan is kind of getting tired of waiting around for him. I mean, isn't it true that she's seriously thinking of going to that university in America next year? The same university that Hondou Eisuke is going to? Shin-chan told me that that guy has a major crush on Mouri-chan, so isn't it possible that he'll steal her away while they're together abroad?"

Masumi's mouth dropped open in shock while Saguru's eyes widened in interest.

"That… Did Kudo-kun really tell you all of that?" Sera asked in utter disbelief.

Kaito nodded, smiling smugly. "Yep. He tells me a lot of stuff now that we're finally friends. Once we got to talking about half a year ago and he realized that I had a sympathetic ear, anyway. Once he realized that we have more in common than he originally thought."

Sera's eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed together as she bit the inside of her cheek.

It looked like Shinichi really was close to Kaito if he had shared so many secrets with the magician. They were closer than Conan-kun and Sera herself, anyway. She had yet to hear from Conan-kun's lips that he was really the missing Kudo Shinichi, and he sure as hell hadn't confided anything in her about the situation with Ran.

"Well, it sounds like things are in a good position for you, Kuroba," Saguru chuckled, happy for his friend despite the initial feeling of weirdness at the news that Kaito was actually pursuing another man.

It had been one thing when Kaito had told Saguru that he liked men as well, but Saguru had only ever seen Kaito with women (when Kaito was dressed as a man, anyway. Cross-dressing Kaito was an entirely different matter, but…). Sure, Kaito had shamelessly flirted with men in front of Saguru before—the entire Taskforce, in fact. Heck, Kaito flirted with Saguru on a regular basis, but…none of it had ever been serious. This matter with Kudo Shinichi…Saguru was slightly concerned. He'd have to do some looking into this character.

"I know, right?" Kaito tittered, smiling impishly. "The only hard part is being patient while his relationship with Mouri-chan slowly dissolves over the next hundred years."

"I don't know how I feel about you being a rebound, though," Saguru raised his concern.

Kaito shrugged it off easily. "It's fine, isn't it? I mean… He's my rebound too…from Aoko."

Saguru bit his lip. He was about to say, "But you've already been emotionally attached to him since that night at the clock tower," but Sera started talking before he could get the words out.

"You know, even if Ran-chan and Kudo-kun break up, Kudo's still not going to go for you. You know that, right?" Sera remarked, crossing her arms so that she'd have something to do other than ball her hands into fists. Her nails were still digging into her skin, though, she was so ticked.

How dare Kuroba plot to steal Kudo-kun right out from under Ran-chan's nose? It wasn't fair! And he was completely pushing Masumi's own feelings aside, even though he clearly knew how she herself felt about Kudo-kun and Conan-kun.

Kaito blinked, visibly surprised at the edge to Sera's voice. "Why not?"

"'Cause you're a guy," Sera snorted. "Kudo-kun likes girls. In fact, I hear he's even a little homophobic." She tried hard not to gloat. She really didn't want to cause a knockdown, drag out brawl in the middle of a bowling alley (for a second time, anyway).

Kaito gave a short laugh at her argument. "Only because he's never been with a guy before. I can change his mind," Kaito stated with confidence.

Sera's own self-assurance was quickly fading. Her face fell, and she blinked in confusion. "H-How?"

Kaito shrugged with an arrogant smirk nailed to his face. "Oh, this and that. I have my ways. I mean, I guess this isn't something you'd know about since you've never had a boyfriend before, but boys know what boys want, and a guy is much better equipped to make another guy happy."

Masumi's face went bright red. Whether that was in anger or embarrassment, not even Masumi herself was sure.

"Kuroba, stop before she thinks you're serious," Saguru scolded, elbowing his best friend in the ribs. "It's your turn to bowl, so why don't you just get this show on the road already, yes?"

Still wearing that obnoxious grin, Kaito nodded and got to his feet, strutting over to pick up his ball before heading out to the top of the lane.

"I can't believe him," Sera grumbled, taking the empty seat next to Saguru. "Where the hell does he get that arrogance?"

"I'm told that it comes from his mother," Saguru joked, trying to lighten the mood. Things had gotten unexpectedly heated and charged all of the sudden. "Masumi-san… Would you care to tell me what that was all about? I mean… It sounded more personal than just a little disagreement…. Only if you feel like talking about it, though." Saguru didn't want to push too hard, if it were private, but he was feeling a little lost at the moment.

Sera shook her head. "It's nothing. I know Kudo-kun. He's a nice guy, and…and Ran-chan is my friend, so it just kind of bugs me, him interfering with them like that."

Saguru nodded, understanding at least a little bit better now. "Kuroba won't do anything to mess up their relationship. In fact, he's been working for a while now as Kudo-kun's body double, helping Kudo-kun to get out of sticky situations with Ran-san by dressing up like Kudo-kun when Kudo-kun needs him to. He's helped keep them together the last year or two, so he wouldn't purposely sabotage them. I believe what he was trying to say, despite the fact that he was acting so haughty and smirking like that, was that it looks like things are reaching their natural end between those two, and he plans on sweeping Kudo-kun off of his feet when things finally fall through."

Sera pursed her lips, not wanting to believe it but unable to argue with Saguru's view of things because surely he understood Kaito better than Sera did. The two boys had known each other much longer and obviously shared an unbreakable bond. "So…you don't actually think that Kai-chan's going to seduce Kudo-kun into having sex with him, do you?" she asked innocently, cocking her head to the side and looking at him with those big, beautiful hunter green eyes.

Saguru nearly passed out. The last thing he needed was for his intended to look at him like _that_ and ask about such things. Red-faced and pointedly looking away, Saguru quickly spit out, "To my knowledge, the furthest Kaito has ever gone with anyone is third base, so, no, it's unlikely. How do you feel about the Hanshin Tigers?"

Masumi blinked. "The Hanshin Tigers?"

Rolling his eyes, Kaito threw the bowling ball and turned on his heel, storming back over to the seating area with a "What the hell, man?" look on his face even as his ball sailed down the lane and took out all ten pins for his second consecutive strike.

"Dude, Baseball?" Kaito shouted incredulously. "You don't even care about baseball," Kaito groused.

"What was I supposed to do?" Saguru snapped, still blushing. "You made things awkward!"

Kaito looked up to the heavens and shook his head, spreading his arms in a "Father, what would you have me do with this idiot?" pose.

With a sigh, Kaito looked back at Hakuba, giving the Brit a good glare. "What you were supposed to say was 'Yeah. Kuroba's a horrible slut. Ignore him. By the way, I was thinking about going to see the new Hobbit movie over the weekend. Did you want to come with? I'll buy you lunch.'"

Saguru blinked and then hesitantly turned towards Masumi (who was trying not to giggle at the amusing banter that her two friends were exchanging). He gulped before finding the courage to speak. "Er…I… Well, Kuroba's not really a slut, but…I do find it works best to ignore about ninety-three percent of what comes out of his mouth; however, I actually _was_ thinking about going to see the new Hobbit this Saturday. I mean…if you're not busy. We could see something else, of course, if you didn't want to see The Hobbit, but…I'd like to take you out to lunch or dinner or whatever meal it happens to be afterwards, so…. Um…would you be interested in going to the movies with me?"

Masumi smiled and laughed as she nodded. "Yeah. That sounds like fun. I saw the first one in the States before I came back to Japan, and then, last year I saw the second movie with Ran-chan, Conan-kun, and his friends, but…there was kind of a murder fifteen minutes into it, so we had to go see it another day. And then there was a bomb threat that time, so I just went by myself and finally saw the whole thing the third time. But, yeah. I'd love to go with you on Saturday."

"R-Really?" Saguru chuckled in disbelief. He'd finally asked her out to a movie, and she'd said yes! "T-Then I'll check the movie times, and I'll get back with you."

"Sounds good." She agreed with a thumbs up.

"You do realize this means that you can't dress up, don't you?" Kaito snickered, settling down comfortably onto his hard, plastic seat.

Saguru glared at his best friend, threatening severe bodily harm with his eyes.

"Dress up?" Sera blinked, looking back and forth between the boys.

"Haku-chan, it's your turn to bowl," Kaito sang.

"Keep in mind that I have the ability to judo throw you into an oblivion," Saguru muttered as he turned to fetch his bowling ball.

"Gotta catch me first," Kaito taunted.

When Saguru was out of hearing range, Kaito sighed overdramatically in exhaustion. "Finally. Was that seriously so hard?"

Sera blinked and regarded the magician with suspicion in her eyes.

Kaito smirked. "He's been trying to ask you out to a movie for over a month now," he explained.

Masumi shook her head, grinning broadly. "I can't believe you. You're such a manipulative bastard with a heart of gold, aren't you?"

Kaito shrugged, looking self-satisfied. "It's what I do. Someone has to push his buttons and make him actually do the stuff he wants to do or else it never gets done. It's because he's got zero self-confidence."

Masumi couldn't help but smirk. "You play him like a flute. And you were playing me earlier too, weren't you? With that stuff you were saying about Kudo-kun and Ran-chan. You were trying to get me riled up, trying to pick a fight. Why?"

Kaito sighed in mock defeat. "You caught me, Tantei-chan. Guilty as charged. You see, what I'm trying to do is get you to give up on Shinichi. He's got Mouri-chan for the time being, and as soon as that goes south—whether that's in ten weeks, ten months, or ten years—he's got me. No offense, but…between you and me, with the way things are now, I think he'd pick me over you. I've got a better foundation in place with him, and I'm going to be the one to pick him back up once she finds out his secret and blows up at him or finds someone new and lets him go. I'm willing to put in the time and effort with him while he picks the pieces up and tries to put his heart back together. Can you honestly say that you're willing to wait for him to get his head and his heart straightened out? To wait as long as ten years for the age gap to stop being such a big deal if it comes to that?"

Sera's brow furrowed. "Do you seriously like him that much? That you'd sit on your hands for _ten years_? I mean…didn't you say that you two had just gotten to actually be friends a couple months ago? How can you be so serious about him already?"

Kaito shrugged and looked at her with a very honest, unassuming expression on his face. "Masumi-chan, I'm a very passionate, intense person. I may flirt with any Kyoko, Yuki, or Toru that crosses my path, but in the past eighteen and a half years, I've only loved one woman. I'm damn loyal, and once I decide that I'm serious, until further notice, I'm in this until death do us part. Anyway, there's a lot more to this than probably will ever be apparent to you, but, yeah. I'm serious."

Thoughts of shared secrets, shared missions, and shared enemies filled his mind. Of course his outlandish devotion would sound outrageous to her. She didn't know about the bond that Kaito and Shinichi had. She might never know of their rivalry, their moonlit chases, the comradery, or the feeling of safety, acceptance, and understanding between them. And then there was the fun banter and matching of wits on top of it.

Sera Masumi might never know, but Kuroba Kaito realized that he had met his match, and—in his current brokenhearted, desperate, vulnerable state—he was willing to do anything, wait no matter how long, for Shinichi to realize it too.

"My point is," Kaito continued, "Shinichi's taken right now, and as soon as he's available, he'll be a complete mess. Let somebody who's broken in the same way take care of Shin-chan, and turn your rescue efforts elsewhere, 'kay?"

Masumi narrowed her eyes in confusion. "My…rescue efforts?"

Kaito nodded towards Saguru, getting ready to take his shot. "Yeah. Rescue him. Whatever it is that you like about Shinichi, Saguru's got something just as good—ten times better even."

Sera watched as Saguru bowled a strike and then looked back at Kaito. "Anyone ever tell you that you should sell used cars? Or start your own infomercial or something?"

"No, and I don't think I'd be interested in scamming people. I only use my powers of master manipulation for the forces of good," Kaito crowed.

Sera rolled her eyes as she chuckled. "Kai-chan, you're a real hoot…. And I'll think about it."

"Good," Kaito purred, voice dripping self-satisfaction.

…

The rest of the night at the bowling alley went rather well for the trio, much more smoothly than the first segment of the evening. The game went a lot faster after they instituted a two minute time limit to lining up shots so as to keep them from having conversations that went any deeper than "What's your favorite book?" or "How do you prefer your eggs? I like mine scrambled."

After the bowling ended, Kaito was declared the winner with five strikes and two spares under his belt. Masumi just barely came in second, only three points higher than Saguru.

There was still plenty of time left before they had to be at the train station for Sera's train back to Beika, so the gang played a few games of air hockey and foosball.

Kaito immerged undefeated.

"He's cheating," Masumi declared with a deadpan expression. "He's got to be cheating."

"No," Saguru sighed wearily, massaging his temples in soothing circles. "He's just bloody perfect at everything besides telling the truth and ice skating."

In the background Kaito did what they could only assume was a celebratory dance.

They walked to the station together in time for Sera and Hakuba to catch the nine-fifteen train to Beika, but Kaito said his goodbyes at the gate, letting the little lovebirds go the last leg on their own.

But not before giving Sera a kiss on the cheek. "I had a marvelous time tonight. Call me!" he giggled and, while she was still stunned, hopped out of the way in case she took exception to his actions.

Saguru was the one to react first. "Kuroba!" he growled, taking a wide swing at the acrobatic magician.

Kaito easily dodged the half-hearted punch, chortling like a chimp the whole time. "What? Did you want a goodnight kiss too, Haku-chan?"

Saguru then found himself the recipient of a playful smooch. He froze in abject horror, and Kaito was long gone (laughing his head off and waving back over his shoulder as he dashed away) by the time Saguru recovered.

The worst part was that Masumi was laughing heartily too. "God, Kai-chan's such a riot! I can really see why you like him so much."

"Really?" Saguru replied in a clipped tone. "I was just wondering why on God's green Earth I put up with him."

"Because he's awesome." Masumi shrugged in her carefree manner, motioning for Saguru to hurry up and follow her through the gate.

Saguru shook his head and swiped the pass in his wallet.

"I kind of feel like I just went on a date as a threesome, though." Masumi continued to laugh, reporting this bit of information in an unnaturally calm manner.

Saguru nearly tripped up the steps.

"You know. Since Kai-chan is an equal opportunity flirt," she explained, only making it worse. "He flirted more with you than with me, but… Yeah. I definitely feel like he's trying to get me to join a threesome or maybe a harem or something…. I'm making you uncomfortable, aren't I?"

"Not at all," Saguru returned blithely.

Sera rolled her eyes as the train pulled in. She leaned in closer so that he would hear her over the clamor. "Did you know you have a tell?"

He could feel her warm breath ghosting over his skin in sharp contrast to the chilly December air, and it made his heart flutter. "O-Oh really?"

"Yeah," she chuckled, her shoulder pressed up against his. "But I'm not gonna tell you what it is in case we ever play poker together."

"Fair enough." He swallowed hard.

She couldn't have been more attractive in that instant unless she had been sincerely trying.

But then the train came to complete stop, and the doors opened. Masumi pulled back and entered the car that had pulled up in front of them as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

And the moment was gone, so he followed, letting her have the window seat.

…

Mikau: So, question. I'm going to be writing "the karaoke scene" soon with Kaito, Conan, Hakuba, and Sera, and I can't decide what songs I want everyone to sing. Kaito's going to be doing most of the singing because he's a total ham like that. I think I want him to do something in English, but I don't really listen to much English music, so I'm having trouble deciding. I was thinking maybe something by Katy Perry or Lady GaGa or maybe even Ke$ha. Their music seems to have the attitude I was going for. Unless you can think of something else. I kind of wanted something that Kaito could use to flirt with Shin-chan. I'm not actually familiar with those artists besides what I've danced to in Zumba, so...if anyone had any ideas, that would be cool.

As for Hakuba, I wanted something in English. I was thinking Fall Out Boy or Motion City Soundtrack. I don't know really. Something depressing and kind of punk or rebellious, but I have no idea what to do for Sera. If anyone thinks there's a particular song that she would sing? I'm thinking one in Japanese and one in English. Also, what song would Kaito force Hakuba and Sera to do a duet to? If anyone has any suggestions, that would be great! Thanks in advance!


	12. Marriage Material?

Mikau: Hi there, everybody! Wish me luck. I've got an interview today. I've also got two surprises! Stay tuned at the end for the second one, but the first one is the very first 173 words of the side fic that I've been talking about. You can check it out on the Poirot Café forum. Under the Fanfic Writing and Resources board, find the A Light in the Darkness thread, and let me know what you think. But before that, thank you so much to my wonderful reviewers: Willysfeather, Late Bloomers, Detectivewriters, Orange04, GeekyGenius, 908-03, and Kimmiko T! Enjoy, guys!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, it wouldn't have taken this long to get Green Dream animated. There. Now you guys don't have to hear me whine about it anymore. Unless the animated version is unsatisfactory.

…

Chapter Twelve: Marriage Material?

Sera and Hakuba sat together in a comfortable silence as the train rocked like a cradle, gently from side to side, making its way back to Beika. Their car was nearly empty, only a dozen other people occupying a handful of seats scattered here and there.

"Does…Does that hurt?" Sera asked softly as she turned her gaze away from the scenery outside the window.

"Does what hurt?" Saguru blinked.

She shifted uncomfortably and then poked him in the arm. "You know. From where you…?"

"Oh." Saguru subconsciously touched his clothing directly over the old wounds. "Not anymore, but…at the time yes, but that's part of the appeal of it."

"O-Oh," she replied, starting to regret ever asking and the morbid curiosity that had led her to do so. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be asking about personal stuff like that. Sorry, Saguru-kun."

"It's okay," he reassured, sounding genuine. "I don't really mind talking about it with you. It's actually…kind of a relief, other people knowing. Kuroba was the only one before you. Baaya…Baaya doesn't know. She'd have an absolute fit if she ever found out, but… You see, the majority of my problem is that I don't talk about anything with anyone. Or, at least I didn't before I had Kuroba. I'm still getting used to going to him about things, though. It's hard opening up and admitting that I'm weak, but…he really does have a sympathetic ear and a good heart. It's easier talking to him than I ever would have believed before I actually got to know him. He's got his own inner demons too."

Sera nodded. "Yeah. I can tell that he's a lot like me. He hides behind his cheery smile like it's a bastion wall."

"Is that to say that you can relate because you hide behind your own smiling mask?" Saguru gently prodded.

Sera shrugged. "Not nearly as much as Kai-chan. I force myself to be upbeat and keep smiling sometimes, but I can tell that Kai-chan is always trying to keep up his act. There's some heavy stuff in my life, yeah, but I have a feeling that it's nothing compared to him."

Saguru confirmed her conjecture with a nod. "He's had a hard time of it from right out of the gate, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't look at him too hard. Don't investigate or anything. He's got old, festering wounds that have yet to heal properly, and he doesn't like people knowing about them. He'll pull away if you press him, and I don't want that to happen because he could really use a friend like you. I think you'll be good for each other."

"…Thanks," she chuckled softly, giving him a playful nudge with her shoulder. "I really want to be his friend too, so I appreciate your help…especially since it's against your own interest, letting us be friends."

Saguru chuckled softly, smiling openly. "Yes. I fear I'm to suffer many a headache at the hands of your powers combined, but…I believe it'll be worth it."

"Speaking of friends," she tentatively breeched the subject, lightly biting her bottom lip. "Thank you for still being friends with me even after I screwed everything up. I really appreciate the second chance."

He shrugged, pretending to be very interested in the passing buildings out the window on the opposite side of the train. "It's nothing. I should be thanking you for continuing to be my friend, even though it must be, if not awkward, at least a little weird for you."

She shook her head vehemently. "It's not weird. I mean… It's just a little different, a little more challenging because I have to think more about what I say 'cause I don't want to slip up again and hurt your feelings or anything, so…but I need to be more conscientious about what comes out of my mouth anyway. It's not just with you, so this is good for me in general."

"Thank you. I appreciate you being so thoughtful. And I'll try not to make things weird on my end too," Saguru promised with a soft smile. "By the way, I truly value your friendship, you know. I don't just hang out with you because you're pretty. I'd still want to be your friend, even if I didn't think you were attractive, so…"

Sera chuckled with her trademark grin. "Glad we got that sorted out. So. Topic change: Kai-chan says you're a total nerd."

"Wh-Wha?" Saguru responded eloquently.

"Yeah," she continued eagerly. "He told me that you like Doctor Who, Star Trek, Red Dwarf…that you have all sorts of action figures and models and memorabilia hidden away in one of the spare rooms. He said you dress up and go to conventions."

Despite the fact that his face was flushing, Hakuba stood his ground. "I prefer the term 'geek', actually. What most people don't understand is that it's a culture in and of itself, and a lot of hard work goes into making costumes and putting together outfits. Some of us go so far as to learn entire fictional languages."

"Yeah, Kai-chan says that you're fluent in some elf language and…oh, whatever Spock speaks," Sera added, trying to figure out how to do the thing with her hands.

Meanwhile, Saguru tried not to have an aneurism. He told himself that she meant no disrespect, mentally reminded himself that she simply didn't know any better and he'd just have to take it upon himself to teach her. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes I am, thank you."

He gently took her hand and helped her to separate her ring finger from her middle finger properly.

"Live long and prosper, right?" she laughed loudly and then switched topics. "I've actually never seen the Lord of the Rings movies. Well, I tried to watch the first one, but it was kind of boring, so—"

"—Let's change the subject," he suggested before he snapped and ranted at her for the rest of the train ride about how absolutely spectacular the entire fandom was. "You liked the Hobbit movies, right?"

"Oh, yeah. The cinematography is gorgeous for one, and the plot's engaging…if not a bit drawn out. There's a lot going on. I would have liked it better if it were just one movie instead of being stretched out like that. I kind of forget what's going on between movies. I like the action scenes, though," she informed him cheerfully, unaware that she was figuratively stomping through his pristine living room with muddy boots.

"Of course you do," he replied weakly. "Well, do you have a favorite character or… What's your favorite thing about the movies?"

"Tauriel. She's super hot, don't you think?" Masumi giggled with a broad smile. "I love strong women who can fight and take care of themselves."

Saguru was a little thrown by the comment. "Y-Yes. I do suppose she's attractive." He wasn't sure why he was having this particular conversation with the girl that he liked, though.

"She's totally my type," Sera continued obliviously. "And then another thing I like about the movies, or, I guess, what I like to do while watching the movies is pretending that John Watson has retired out in the countryside while he thinks Sherlock is dead, so he just wants to be left alone, but then the whole team comes with a mission for him, and he has to go on an adventure before heading back to London."

Saguru couldn't help but laugh. "You've seen BBC's Sherlock then?"

"Oh, yeah." She nodded enthusiastically. "I was never really big into the original Holmes stuff. I mean, I read a little here and there—I mean, we all have, us detectives, haven't we?—but I was never seriously into it like I am BBC's Sherlock."

Suddenly the conversation was looking up for Saguru, and Masumi was seeming a lot more like marriage material again. He'd been concerned for a minute there based on the Lord of the Rings discussion.

They spent the rest of the train ride to Beika talking about various aspects of the BBC show, and Saguru was able to show off a bit, discussing how the series compared with the original. He even got her to consider reading a few of the original Holmes short stories that the episodes were based on.

…

Once Sera finally made it back to her hotel room that evening, she was exhausted. It had been a draining day in many senses of the word. She'd woken up early to go for a run before school, and then there was school itself. After that she'd been subjected to Kaito's pranks and had had to go through psychological torture before she was accepted and taken to see Hakuba. But first there had been Baaya—which had been super intimidating. The talk with Saguru itself had taken a lot out of her, and then they'd all gone bowling afterwards. It'd been a long day, and she was ready to hit the hay so that she could wake up and go to school the next morning.

But her roommate was up and waiting for her when she walked into the bedroom. The young girl was sitting in the armchair, working on the scarf she'd been crocheting.

A pair of olive eyes identical to her own gazed up at her, and those eyes asked all of the questions on the girl's behalf.

Masumi smiled sleepily. "Hey. I'm home, and everything went well. Saguru-kun and I are gonna keep being friends, and I even made friends with Kuroba Kaito too. It was a good day, but I'm super tired, so I'm gonna turn in, okay? Did you need anything before I do?"

"Not a thing," the not-child assured. "And I'm glad that things worked out for you in the end."

"Me too," Sera chuckled, quickly changing and climbing in bed without bothering with a shower first. She'd deal with that in the morning.

…

"Well?!" was the first thing out of Sonoko's mouth Tuesday morning when Sera walked into the classroom.

The detective blinked, setting down her things. "'Well' what?"

"Come on, Sera-san! Don't hold out on us!" Sonoko groaned, sinking back into her desk chair.

"What happened with Hakuba-kun?" Mouri Ran inquired, trying to be all polite and nonintrusive, but, on the inside, she was just as eager to know as her best friend.

"Oh," Sera chuckled, finally understanding the subject. "Yeah, it went really well. Thanks guys. He actually wasn't at school, but I met up with the Kuroba guy I told you he was best friends with, and after Kai-chan and I talked, I went to Saguru-kun's house and met his Baaya, and Saguru-kun and I ended up making up. And then Kai-chan, Saguru-kun, and I went bowling. It was super fun, but I'm still kind of tired," Sera admitted.

"Oh, he's 'Saguru-kun' now is he?" Sonoko tittered suggestively.

To which Masumi rolled her eyes. "Kai-chan told me to call him that because Kai-chan is the one that calls Saguru-kun 'Haku-chan'."

"Still that's really exciting that you two were able to fix things and still be friends," Ran remarked with a pleasant, content smile. "I'm so glad for you, Sera-san! I could really tell that the whole situation was getting you down lately, so I'm happy that it's resolved."

"Aww, you're so sweet, Ran-chan!" Sera laughed, lovingly putting Ran in a headlock and mussing her long, silky hair.

"So you guys are dating now?" Sonoko chimed in hopefully.

Masumi sighed in defeat. "No. No, we're still just friends."

"Boo," Sonoko pouted.

"I mean…" Sera shifted nervously. "Look. Saguru-kun's really great, and, after talking with Kai-chan, I think I maybe could like him like that given time, but I've really got to sort some things out before that…. And I'm kind of worried that if we do date and I screw things up and we break up, we won't be able to be friends anymore, so… He said to take my time and figure things out and then give him an answer."

"Hmm," Sonoko replied, eying the other girl intently. "Well, that's not a completely unsatisfactory answer."

"Sometimes you just have to take that risk," Ran offered with a slight blush. "Being friends is really great, but…love is so much better."

"Exactly!" Sonoko chimed in. "There's nothing like the rush you get from being in love!"

"But you're right to want to think things out first," Ran continued. "Don't start a relationship just because it's what everyone else is saying you should do. If you don't take the time to listen to what your own heart is saying, it really won't turn out well, and both you and Hakuba-kun will end up hurt," she explained gently. "Sera-san, you're the only one that knows if this is right for you."

"But you better hurry up and make up your mind fast," Sonoko cautioned. "Before some other girl snatches him away from you."

"Hakuba-kun really is popular, isn't he?" Ran chuckled. "Didn't his parents and yours try to set you two up?"

"Yeah, but I'm taken," Sonoko snorted and then did an about face, beginning to coo about her strong, handsome, brave boyfriend.

The conversation quickly moved on from Sera's present predicament, leaving her to wonder in silence if that geek really was all that popular with women.

…

Mikau: I really liked this chapter. It was a lot of fun, particularly the conversation on the train between Hakuba and Sera. I hope you enjoyed it too! Thanks for reading guys! I look forward to hearing what you have to say! Also, the second surprise: for those wanting a sneak peek of the karaoke chapter, go to the Poirot Café forum. Under the Fanfic Writing and Resources board, find the Falling in Love Literally thread, and the sneak peek is on the third page about halfway down. It started when Natsumi (Detectivewriters) made up some lines with Kaito trying to convince Hakuba and Sera to sing Love Is An Open Door from Frozen…and then I just couldn't resist, so I finished the scene, and now it's canon. I hope you enjoy that as well. Let me know what you thought!


	13. Uneasy

Mikau: Hello! I have a job interview Friday, and I'm nervous. It's just for a temp position, but still. Wish me luck. Sorry that my job interviews have been interrupting the update schedule. It might have to switch to Monday and Thursday nights if I do get the position. Anyway, check out the ending author's notes for a special announcement. Today's chapter is a little longer than usual, but for some reason it doesn't feel longer to me. Oh well. I hope you enjoy it. And, as always, thanks so much to my wonderful reviewers: Detectivewriters, Bunnyz-chan, Orange04, Willysfeather, GeekyGenius, Kimmiko T, neonquincy1217, and LittleFan.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the audience would be filled in on more of the details. I think it's really fun when the audience knows some big secret that the characters don't. It's exciting to wonder when they'll figure it out or to watch a scene unfolding and scream "He's your brother! Tell her that you're her brother!" But Aoyama-sensei seems to like to keep the readers in the dark. Most of the time we don't know as much as the characters do.

…

Chapter Thirteen: Uneasy

Second period came, and Masumi found herself still oddly troubled by the same question: Was Hakuba Saguru actually popular? She decided to put an end to this line of thought once and for all by surreptitiously texting Kaito, thinking that he would get back to her during his lunch break or after school.

Meanwhile, across town in Ekoda, Kuroba Kaito was also having second period: Chemistry. But they were working on balancing equations, so he was bored out of his skull. He could do this stuff sleepwalking; it was much more fun when they got to blow stuff up, but, sadly, today was not one of those days.

Kaito was actually really relieved when he felt his phone buzz. He cautiously pulled it out under his desk and glanced down at the screen, his face lighting up when he saw the name shown on the readout. Why, oh why would the lovely Miss Masumi-chan be texting him in the middle of class?

His brow furrowed slightly as he read the text. To the teacher, it probably looked like he was struggling with one of the problems on the in-class assignment (most likely number twelve).

The text read as follows: "Hey, Kai-chan! ^o^ Had a lot of fun last night. Thanks again. Question: is Saguru-kun really popular with the ladies? One of my friends said that he was. Just curious. Thanks!"

Kaito had to suppress a smirk as he muttered under his breath, "Just curious, huh? What's it to you if the guy is popular, I wonder?"

"Kaito shouldn't text in class," Aoko whispered from where she sat in the desk to his right. Her nose was buried in her book, and she wasn't even looking at him.

Their relationship had grown strained over the past year and a half, but she still wasn't above scolding him like a mother might. Not _his_ mother, mind you. Kuroba Chikage was on a whole other level when it came to scolding. If she was feeling lenient, you'd end up begging for forgiveness down on your hands and knees. If she wasn't feeling so generous…well…you'd feel the inexplicable need to watch your back for a good week after the scolding.

"Lay off. I'm texting a cute girl," Kaito retorted gruffly, voice just barely above a whisper so that the teacher wouldn't hear as he made his rounds, checking on the students' progress.

Kaito's statement wasn't a lie, but it wasn't a completely true picture of the state of things either. At best he was misrepresenting the facts, but it was enough to get Aoko off of his case. She snorted at him and went back to her work, not bothering to nag at him a second time as he replied to Sera's text.

Kaito decided that he could definitely use Sera's sudden "curiosity" to his own advantage. Was there really anything wrong with coloring the facts a slightly different shade if it was done with good intentions? His shoulder angel said yes. His shoulder devil said no. He decided to knock them both off of their pedestals and just go with his gut.

"Yes, of course Haku-chan's popular," he sent back to Sera. "Not as much as me, mind you, but he's definitely in the top ten at school. It's the foreign thing. Ladies love the blonde hair and the accent. He could have a new girl every day, if he were that kind of guy."

Sera blinked as she felt her skirt pocket vibrate. It was still just second period. It was the tail end of second period, albeit, but it was second period all the same. There was no way that Kaito had gotten back to her so quickly. He was supposed to be in class.

She took a peek at his response, and she almost dropped her phone. There was no way. It wasn't possible.

"But Saguru-kun is such a geek," she argued. "He can't really be all that popular, can he?"

Kaito frowned at her reply. Was it really that hard to believe? "Why not? All I can tell you is that the ladies love him. On Valentine's he almost gets as much candy as I do, and he's even got his own fan-made site!"

"Seriously?" Sera returned in uncertainty.

"Seriously!" Kaito huffed. "Okay, sure. They're all just after him for his pretty face and his money and their ideas about him, but…. There really are a lot of women after him. Your question was if he were popular, right? Well, the answer is yes because no one is close enough to know what a nerd he is. They all think he's this mysterious, sexy foreigner with lots of money and influence because of his parents. I swear that not a one of them knows the first thing about him…but, yeah. There's a miniature army of women out there chasing him. So, yeah. Hakuba's popular."

It took a moment for Kaito's last response to come in, and after Sera had read it, she needed to sit there and think about it for a minute before she was able to answer. "That's gotta be tough on him. It must be really saddening for a bunch of people to tell you that they love you when they don't even really know you.

"I've got my own fanclub here at school, but all of the girls in it have actually talked to me and know a bit about me. I think it would be really lonely if a bunch of people went and decided what kind of person you were or what you were really like without even asking you and then started saying that they loved the version of you that they'd invented themselves. It'd kind of be like denying your existence or something, like rejecting the real you, don't you think?"

Only Sera's message didn't fit in one SMS. She had to send it in four parts.

Kaito smiled softly as he read her words. "You see, this is why I think you two would be a good match. You really get him, Masumi-chan."

"Kuroba-kun! No texting during class!" the teacher boomed authoritatively once he'd caught sight of Kaito's phone. "Work on your assignment."

"But, Sensei, I'm already done," Kaito replied as he hit send.

The teacher came over to take a look at Kaito's work, and his brow furrowed in frustration and disbelief. His face contorted with ire more and more with each successive correct answer. "V-Very good, Kuroba-kun. You got full points."

"Great! So I can go back to texting my girlfriend now?" Kaito snickered, too full of himself for his own good.

Naturally, this kind of punkish attitude irked the teacher. "Kuroba-kun, why don't you go stand out in the hall for the last ten minutes of class? And hand over the phone, please."

"With pleasure," Kaito chuckled, closing the phone and handing it over to his teacher.

And then there was a small explosion, a pink smoke bomb going off and concealing Kaito's quick escape. In the time it'd take a coin to drop, Kaito was gone from his desk and had already reappeared, standing in the doorway.

"Thanks for the lesson, Sensei!" Kaito gave a pleasant smile and a grateful wave goodbye. In his other hand, he was busy flipping the phone he had just pickpocketed back from the chemistry teacher. "See you next time!"

Back at Teitan, Sera Masumi was frowning intently down at her phone, not sure how to feel about Kaito's latest response. She was just settling on "troubled" when the guy behind her poked her with a pencil.

Sera snapped to attention just in time to hear the teacher calling on her for what sounded like at least the third or fourth time judging by the slightly irritated pitch of the teacher's voice.

"Page thirty, the fourth line down," the guy behind her whispered.

"Thanks," Sera muttered back at him as she stuffed the phone into her skirt pocket with one hand while using the other to pick up her copy of Anne of Green Gables. She stood and began to read from page thirty, line four.

…

The following day she received a text from Saguru saying, "Good morning. I hope I'm not texting you too early and this message finds you doing well. I just wanted to tell you that Kuroba and I are planning on going to an arcade to hang out after school today. We'll probably stop by Nancy's to get dinner first, but would you care to join us? We could meet you at Nancy's at five-thirty, if you're interested."

Masumi quickly typed out a reply, saying that she'd love to hang out with the guys and that five-thirty was just perfect for her.

Sera put the phone back down on the desk next to her bed and then looked to her right at the still sleeping girl in the bed next to hers. She'd have to leave a note for her roommate since she didn't want to wake the sick not-child just yet. It was still early, and the girl needed the rest.

Sera quietly got out of bed and threw the covers back up in a semi-orderly fashion in lieu of actually bothering to make the bed. She knew her roommate would comment on her failure to properly straighten the sheets underneath later, but at the moment she was much more interested in getting up and ready for school without waking the aforementioned roommate.

Before she left, she prepared a simple, well-balanced lunch and dinner for the girl and left a note explaining her evening plans on the table where the child would be sure to find it.

She met the boys at the appointed time at Nancy's, where they were already settled into their "usual" booth in the back corner. It was as Sera had suspected on Monday when Kaito had stopped short suddenly when leading her to a table.

"Hey guys!" She greeted at what would have been a normal volume in America but was a little louder than what was considered necessary in Japan.

"Masumi-chan!" Kaito matched her decibel level as he got to his feet and nearly knocked her over with a hug. "It's been forever!"

"Kuroba, it's been two days," Saguru chuckled, standing and bowing slightly in a more conservative greeting. "Good evening, Masumi-san. How was your day?"

Despite his casual smile, he seemed a little stiff and awkward.

She rubbed the back of her neck and grinned. "You know. It was school. School's school, but, all in all, not too bad. History was interesting. Did you have a good day, Saguru-kun?"

"Of course he did!" Kaito chirped, smirking proudly in a way that told Sera that Kaito had pranked someone hard today. Possibly his entire class, going by the bitter grimace on Saguru's face.

"I did _not_," Saguru denied primly.

"During third period English, I dyed everyone's uniforms rainbow colors and then had balloon animals rain down from the sky on top of everybody. Then they popped and got glitter _everywhere_." Kaito's grin grew to Cheshire Cat proportions.

"It was not amusing," Saguru added sternly.

"Aww, c'mon. I didn't mess with _you_, did I?" Kaito whined, sticking his bottom lip out and giving Hakuba the puppy dog eyes.

"Admittedly, I alone emerged unscathed—well, besides Koizumi-san, of course, but that's a given unless you wanted to invoke her wrath and get yourself crucified by her admirers—but I simply cannot condone your behavior, Kuroba," Saguru snorted. "But let's take our seats, shall we?"

Kaito muttered something under his breath, sitting down in their booth on the bench so that he faced the exit.

Saguru took the seat opposite him, and that left Sera with a predicament. Where should she sit? Next to Kaito or next to Saguru?

Kaito solved the problem for her by motioning for her to take a seat next to him. This served his own purpose of forcing her to look at the blonde detective for the entire meal. Kaito's plan didn't really produce much fruit, however because Hakuba remained oddly quiet throughout their time together at Nancy's.

Saguru would reply (albeit briefly) when spoken to directly, but he didn't initiate conversation or really add much to the discussion. It was like that all evening, really, even at the arcade while the trio played various games together.

Hakuba wasn't acting particularly cold or angry; he just wasn't as animated as usual. Sera kind of got the feeling that her friend was still sort of down and feeling awkward about hanging out with her.

Kaito tried to keep the conversation flowing, asking direct questions and forcing Saguru to talk and take part in the discussion, but things still felt off.

Sera had fun, though. Kaito was a blast to hang out with, and she enjoyed the conversations with Hakuba that she did have, despite the fact that their interactions were limited and brief. She was sad to see the night come to an end when it finally did, but, at the same time, she was feeling a little nervous because going home meant being escorted by Hakuba. Being alone with Saguru looked like it was going to be an uncomfortably awkward affair tonight.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself to just act natural. Things had been fine on Monday night when they'd ridden the train and walked back to her hotel together. Everything had been just fine then, and it would be this time as well.

As they stood on the platform together, she rocked back and forth, shifting the weight from the balls of her feet to the heels. She took another calming breath and remarked, "Well. That was a lot of fun. Thanks a bunch for inviting me, Saguru-kun."

"You're welcome," was his scant reply.

"I really enjoyed kicking your butt at that shooter game. It's a shame that you wiped the floor with me at guitar hero," she tried again.

"Everyone has their own strengths," he responded.

Sera bit her lip and filed routinely into the train as the doors opened. She took a window seat in the back of the car.

Once the train began its leisurely trek back to Beika and the scenery started to whoosh by in a blur of lights and advertisements mounted on the sides of buildings, Masumi tried again.

"You know, I think my favorite part of the evening was when Kai-chan beat us at foosball even though we teamed up against him. He's really something, isn't he?"

"Quite," Saguru replied simply.

Sera bit her lip. "What was your favorite part?"

"I don't know that I could pick." Saguru wasn't even looking at her. He'd fixed his gaze firmly on the window on the opposite side of the train car.

"Am I making you feel uncomfortable?" Sera finally asked. "Is it awkward trying to hang out and just be friends with me like we were before? Everything seemed fine on Monday, but today you just seem so…checked out."

Saguru blinked and turned to actually look at her at last. There was a look of honest surprise on his face. "N-No. Not at all. Do I really seem distant today?"

"Um… Yeah." Sera drew her lips into a thin line and furrowed her brow. "Yeah, big time."

"Sorry. I just…" Saguru licked his bottom lip nervously. "I swear that it's not you, Masumi-san. It's a case I'm working on, nothing more."

It was a likely story given Saguru's occupation, but Sera really wondered if the other detective was being entirely truthful with her at the moment. Hakuba Saguru had only ever been an honest, straight-laced guy in her experience with him. She had no reason to doubt him…other than the fact that he liked her and was probably feeling weird or frustrated or _something_ because of what had transpired between them.

There was no way that two whole weeks of grief and angst had gone away simply because she'd given him a very rudimentary answer that was nothing more than "I'll give you an answer later." She was using a stall tactic on him.

"What kind of case?" she asked tentatively, fishing and trying to feel him out.

"It's a cold case," he answered solemnly. "A child was kidnapped, raped, and then chopped up into little pieces, so…so I'm having a hard time concentrating tonight. I'm really sorry, Masumi-san. Please forgive my rudeness. I just can't keep some of the things written in the file, some of the graphic images out of my head. It's hard to focus. Kuroba suggested that I hang out with you two, distract myself, but…."

"Don't worry about it, Saguru-kun," Sera assured, giving the blonde a nudge of commiseration. "The work you're doing is important, and anyone would be a little out of it while working on something like that, so… Don't feel bad, Saguru-kun. Did you want me to leave you to your thoughts, or…?"

"No, actually." He smiled at her, looking exhausted all of the sudden. "I'd really be grateful if you could distract me. Uh… What would you like to talk about? Sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I haven't been paying attention. You were saying something, weren't you?"

She shook her head. "Nothing important, but… Hey, the other day, you asked me what my deepest, darkest secret was, but—"

"—I was just joking," he cut in, waving the topic away. "You needn't actually answer, Masumi-san. I don't want you feeling obligated to tell me something private just because I told you about my secret."

She lightly touched her hand to his forearm. "Wait. I _want_ to tell you. I mean… I feel like I know a lot about you and your family and what it was like growing up for you because you've told me some things and I've met your Baaya and I've seen your house, but…you don't know much about me at all, do you, Saguru-kun?"

He paused and blinked once as he stared at her. "I know what kind of person you are, what foods you like, your interests, and what makes you laugh. I know a lot about you. I know the important things. Knowing a person's past can be informative, but the past doesn't dictate who you are right now. It can explain how you got here, but it doesn't necessarily define you.

"I've met murderers that have become decent men and decent men that have become murderers. Human beings are full of potential. We all have the ability to swing one way or the other. We fall or rise depending upon the choices we make in the present moment, so I'd argue that the present is what's truly important…. And I know who Sera Masumi is right now."

He smiled softly at her, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow!" she chuckled heartily. "Saguru-kun, you're super philosophical! I'd hate to get into a debate with you."

"No," he returned the laugh. "You'd hate to get into a debate with Kuroba. _I_ am at least manageable and limited to logical arguments. Kuroba will throw the kitchen sink at you and talk you round in circles until he has you agreeing with things that not even he himself believes. You'd hate to get into a debate with Kuroba."

"God, that sounds terrifying!" she chuckled as she imagined it clearly. "Kai-chan can be scary sometimes, can't he?"

Saguru shuddered. "More than you know."

They laughed over this for a bit before Sera gathered up her courage and got the conversation back on track. "…But…What I was saying…Saguru-kun, I wanted to tell you a secret."

He looked at her for a moment, trying to get some kind of reading on her. "Only if you really want to share something with me. Don't feel like you have to," he replied.

She nodded enthusiastically. "No. I really do want to tell you. I've wanted to talk to someone about it for a while, but…but I can't say much."

"That's fine." Saguru leaned in closer for she had lowered her voice. "Whatever you're comfortable with."

"You can't tell anyone," she continued.

"Naturally. I'll be discrete," he promised.

Sera bit her lip and took a breath before whispering, "There's someone else staying at my hotel with me."

Saguru blinked, his eyes narrowing. His mind immediately started to catastrophize, imagining a handsome young man staying with her, but he dare not ask her to elaborate for fear of pushing the boundary and confirming his own fears.

Thankfully, she continued to speak. "It's a relative of mine, a…a little girl. I can't say anything else, but…maybe you'll be able to meet her someday."

Saguru nodded, dying to ask questions. He wanted to know how exactly this girl was related to Sera, what her name was, where she had come from, and why she was with the teen detective in the first place. He wanted to know, but he knew Masumi would be unable to answer. For some reason, Sera's lips were sealed. The biggest question was _why_.

…

Mikau: Also, check out the KaiShin sister fic! It's called A Light in the Darkness. For all you people that don't like KaiShin, the first chapter is actually heavily KaiAo with Conan and Kaito just meeting and forming a tentative friendship, so I really do think that you'll like it. It gives a much better perspective on what's going on with Kaito. I don't like just throwing two people together without properly establishing the relationship, so it will be friendship at first while the relationship develops properly, so if you like friendship fics but don't like the pairing, I suppose you can read the first couple chapters to get a better idea of the Kaito side of things and then bow out once it gets too shippy for you. In other news, I've got a HakuShin one-shot called Catalyst out today too! Thanks as always guys! I hope you liked the chapter!


	14. Makeover

Mikau: Hi guys! It feels like so long since I last saw you because I had to post on Thursday night last time. Well, guess what. I got the job! Yay! They talked to me for about ten to fifteen minutes, and they must have deliberated for only about five because I had just left the office and was in the elevator down to the lobby when my agency called me and told me that I had the job. Craziness. Anyway, that means I'm going to be busy working forty hours a week soon, so updates might slow down. I'll keep you posted. But for now, I've got a fun Kaito Sera chapter for you today! Enjoy! And, before I forget, thanks a bunch to all of my reviewers from last time: Kimmiko T, Bunnyz-chan, 908-03, Orange04, Willysfeather, and Detectivewriters! I can't believe we're over one hundred reviews! Thank you so much, guys. Your support really means a lot to me and encourages me to keep going.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'm pretty sure they would send me tickets to see the new Conan movie every year. I would probably get to see it before everyone else. I wouldn't have to wait six months for it to come out on DVD and for some kind, Japanese soul to put a copy on the internet. I really, really want to see Movie 19. Seriously.

…

Chapter Fourteen: Makeover

Thursday and Friday, Masumi didn't really talk to either Saguru or Kaito much. She exchanged a few texts, but they didn't have any deep or lengthy discussions. This made it all the more surprising when Kaito showed up at her door on Saturday morning unannounced.

After getting her roommate squared away in the bedroom, Sera opened the door and stared at the magician in disbelief. "Kai-chan! What are you doing here?"

"Good morning, Masumi-chan! Happy Saturday!" Kaito greeted as he waved at her from where he stood out in the hallway looking unrepentant.

"G-Good morning," she returned, still thrown by his presence. "How did you know what room number was mine? I don't think that I told Saguru-kun, and the room's not in my name."

Kaito shrugged, smiling impishly as he let himself in. "You detectives think too much, Masumi-chan."

Kaito got as far as the kitchen table before he noticed that something was amiss. His smile faltered slightly when he saw that there were place settings for two at the table.

"No. Seriously," Sera demanded, looking worried. Her face was uncommonly pale. "Kai-chan if someone like you could easily find out where I am, then…" She reflexively threw a rather telling glance back at the bedroom door, alerting Kaito to the location of the person that the other dishes on the table had been set out for.

The mischievous expression dropped off of Kaito's face and was replaced by a look of sincerity. "Masumi-chan, it's okay. You don't have anything to worry about. First of all, you're seriously underestimating what kind of person I am. There's a reason why the FBI scouted me. I hacked into the hotel's system. All I had to do once I was in was find patrons that had been staying here for a long time starting around when you first moved back to Japan. There were only four long-term clients to start with, so, after that, I just looked at the other information on the accounts and narrowed it down from there. It's not like some guy off of the street could find you, Masumi-chan, so I don't think you have to worry about whomever you're hiding from either." He shrugged with a reassuring smile. "I mean, do you know how many hotels there are in Tokyo? _I_ had the advantage of knowing which one you were staying at."

Meanwhile, Sera blinked incredulously. "You're a _hacker_, Kai-chan?!"

Kaito tried not to squirm uncomfortably as he considered what exactly he should be telling her. He wasn't sure what she knew already, but if she was privy to Tantei-kun's "little" secret, she had to know something about the Organization. Seeing as her brother was an FBI agent before he died, she was probably pretty familiar with the various FBI processes like using a reformed criminal as a witness and informant. If all else failed, he could just act like everything he did was on the up and up because of his newly obtained witness status.

"Relax," he chuckled, trying to maintain an easy, unaffected manner. "I'm a white hat hacker. The worst I do is hack into a system for recon purposes."

Like stealing blueprints and messing with security cameras and…well, okay. Maybe his brand of hacking wasn't typically for the good of humanity. Mostly he hacked in order to break into a place and steal stuff, but…in his case, breaking into a place and stealing stuff _was_ for the good of humanity in the long run. They just didn't know it yet. If he did his job right, they would never know about the Organization and the danger they had been in.

In the meantime, Sera was raising an eyebrow at him. "So you're a hacker for the FBI now?"

Kaito shook his head. "Not exactly. Hacking's not my specialty. I provide the FBI with other services. I can't really discuss it with civilians. I'm sure you know about that from your big brother, but…if you know anything about what Shin-chan is working on, you have some idea of what I'm involved with."

Sera nodded slowly. "I see," she hummed, still not knowing what to make of all this. "So…what did you need, Kai-chan, that you would go to the trouble of hacking into the hotel's system to get my room number?"

"Why, it's only concerning the most important thing to the survival of the human species," Kaito informed (a tad) melodramatically. "I'm here to help you get ready for your date, of course."

Masumi's head slowly began to tilt to the side. "Huh? What does—and it's not even a date, Kai-chan. We're just seeing a movie and grabbing lunch together as friends. What does my outing with Saguru-kun have to do with the survival of the human race?"

"Think about it," he prompted. "You're a girl…. He's a guy…. The continuation of mankind. Wait for it…"

"Oi! Whoa! Hold up. No. No. Just…Kaito!" she protested, waving her arms wildly as if that would bat away Kaito's implications. Finally she held her hands up in a T for "time out". "Look, Kai-chan. Saguru-kun and I are _just _FRIENDS." She said it slowly so that he'd be sure to understand. "The guy just said that he likes me. It's not like he proposed or anything. He's just interested in dating me for some reason. That doesn't necessarily mean he wants to marry me. I think you're jumping the gun a little."

Kaito stared back at her for a minute with a displeased pout stuck on his face like a grain of rice before he shook his head and sighed. "Have it your way, but you're only fooling yourself, Masumi-chan."

Kaito's cryptic warning caused Sera's brow to crinkle in unease. "Do you know something I don't, Kai-chan?" And then she sighed, shaking her own head. "Scratch that. Of course you do. _What_ do you know that I don't, Kai-chan?"

"The stuff that you're too close to be able to see." Kaito shrugged, putting his mysterious smirk back on. "Moving on. Haku-chan's going to be here to pick you up in an hour, so we need to get a move on if you're going to be ready for your date."

Sera rolled her eyes with a sigh. "It's not a—"

"—Yeah, yeah. Not a date. I got it." Kaito matched the gesture precisely.

"And I am ready," Sera added. There was a "Do you want to make something of it?" tacked on at the end as well. "I just have to finish cleaning up breakfast, but other than that, I'm all set to go."

Kaito skeptically scanned Masumi up and down, taking in her usual androgynous (but leaning slightly towards the more male side of things) clothes. Kaito was quite obviously not impressed.

"Yeah. No," he replied decidedly. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything with your buddy that's hiding in there, but as your friend, I can't allow you to go looking like that." He went over to the seating area and set down the bag he had brought with him, beginning to unzip it and pull out various clothing, makeup tools, and accessories. "Your dining companion can go ahead and come out now, if they want. I don't bite."

"There's no one else here," Sera denied too quickly and too insistently.

Kaito shrugged. "Masumi-chan. I know you like to eat, and even though you might have consumed enough breakfast for two people, you wouldn't have used two separate plates to do it. Just look at the way the table is set up. There's another person here, and it wouldn't take a detective to figure it out. Besides, you told me yourself that they were hiding out in that room over there when you anxiously looked to that door when you were concerned about people being able to find you here. I don't really care who they are, and it's not like I'm gonna tell anybody, but I'm not leaving until you're _actually_ ready for your not-date with Haku-chan, and I don't want to keep your friend holed up in the toilet or bedroom or closet or wherever that door leads, so let 'em come out already."

Sera bit her lip as indecision washed over her. She knew she could trust Kaito, but… Still, there was something stopping her. It wasn't just her secret to keep.

Luckily for her, the decision was made for her when the bedroom door slowly opened with a creak. A head of vanilla blonde hair, pale skin, and moss green eyes slowly peeked out.

"I've heard you talk about this Kuroba Kaito before. If he really is with the FBI, he should be able to be trusted, don't you think?" the young girl managed to get out without a coughing fit.

Though…she talked in a way that signaled maturity beyond the eight or so years that she seemed to possess. Her word choices were not consistent with other young girls her apparent age. It kind of reminded Kaito of a certain scientist who looked a great deal younger than her actual age.

But Kaito let it go, assuming that he was just imagining things. He was starting to see not-children, snipers, and Organization plots behind simple, everyday things and events. There was such a thing as being too paranoid.

"Well, hello there, Little Princess," Kaito greeted warmly, going over to the door and crouching down low so that he'd be on her level. He smiled brightly and made a pale, pink rose appear out of thin air for her. "Sorry for the trouble. I'm Kaito. What's your name?"

The seemingly frail, serious child let a sliver of a smile show as she accepted the gift. "A secret at the moment. You can call me whatever you see fit. I trust that we actually can rely on you to keep your lips sealed about my existence here?"

The amicable grin instantly fell off of Kaito's face. This girl looked like the scientist, spoke like the scientist, and even smirked like the scientist. Normal kids just didn't do that. And what were the odds that Sera's little friend was just a strange, actual child when the detective was sniffing around Kudo Shinichi, hiding out in a hotel, afraid that she'd be found. There was no way. It was too much of a coincidence.

"Aw, hell. You're one of _them_, aren't you? One of those kids that looks like a kid but isn't really a child at all." Kaito turned to Sera and stuck out his bottom lip. "No wonder you knew about Shin-chan!"

Masumi pursed her lips before opening her mouth to offer an explanation.

"You can save it," Kaito cut her off, standing up straight and returning to his full height. "I actually don't want to know anything about it until Shin-chan tells me himself, but…if you've got a not-child with you, that means you know a little something about the Organization and some very dangerous people could be after you."

Sera nodded. "I know just a little bit, but—"

"—That's okay," Kaito interposed once more. "I don't need to know what you know. I'm just here to make you look ravishing for your not-date. I don't _want_ to know what you know. All I want is for you and my best buddy to end up together. So do this for me: stay safe, go to Shinichi if you get in a tight spot, and keep Saguru out of this, okay? Can you do that for me?"

Masumi nodded once more.

"Awesome," Kaito sighed, giving his friend a reassuring grin. "Then let's get the dishes cleaned up and then get you all dolled up in a cute, Helen Griffin original outfit, shall we?"

Sera blinked in astonishment. "H-Helen-san sent an outfit for me?" She could hardly believe it.

"Of course. I asked her to." Kaito shrugged, going over to the table and beginning to clear dishes. He was lucky and their breakfast was a western style one, containing no fish.

"Ah, Kai-chan! You don't have to do that!" Sera rushed to help while the younger girl took a seat over on the couch next to Kaito's bag, honestly enjoying watching the spectacle that Kaito and Masumi made.

Thirty minutes later, three outfits had been rejected because they'd been uncomfortable, too girly, too bizarre, not her style, or some combination of the four. Kaito, undaunted in the face of a challenge, pulled out the last resort outfit.

"That, I could actually see myself wearing," Masumi admitted, and it was decided.

The outfit in question was a little black camisole with a little bit of lace at the top where it stopped just short of showing any cleavage that may or may not have been there yet. Over the cami, she wore a formfitting, black and white striped jacket that cinched in and then flared out a little bit at the waist to give her a little bit more of a curvy figure. On bottom she wore blue jeans of a dark wash that disappeared into a pair of her own boots (since she'd adequately convinced Kaito that she really couldn't wear heels).

"Who the hell can't wear high heels?" Kaito had argued adamantly. "Heck, I run in heels! I scale buildings in heels! There's no excuse, Masumi-chan. I'm going to have to teach you."

To which Masumi had sighed pathetically and graciously accepted her fate. They were to have lessons the coming week.

"What do you think?" Kaito prodded once he'd finished adjusting the outfit, obviously anxious to hear a favorable opinion from his life-sized Barbie.

Sera took a look at herself in the mirror, and she was forced to admit that she really did look good. She was fashionable, but she hadn't gotten too far away from or betrayed her own style.

"I think Helen-san is an amazing designer. I'll have to write her a thank you note. This outfit really does look good on me, doesn't it?" Sera was reluctant to admit how much fun she was having being fussed over out of principle, but it was hard to mask the joy and excitement in her voice.

"You look foxy, little mama," Kaito laughed, clapping as Sera did a turn and checked out the view from behind. "And those jeans hug you _just_ right. I think Haku-chan's going to have a hard time concentrating on the movie with a hottie like you sitting next to him."

Suddenly Sera felt unsure. She bit her lip and shifted uncomfortably as he looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Kai-chan, I don't know how I feel about dressing up like this in front of Saguru-kun. I mean…I don't want to make things awkward or hard on him, and I don't want to give him the wrong idea. More than anything, I don't want to lead him on. I'm not so sure about this, Kaito."

Kaito took a deep breath and slowly blew it out like an inner tube deflating. "Look, Masumi-chan. I'm gonna be honest with you. Saguru's long gone on you. He'd think you were adorable in your pajamas, so it honestly doesn't matter one way or the other what you wear. If you don't end up feeling the same way as him, he's gonna be a Hindenburg-sized wreck. So why don't you let him have a little fun along the way? I bet he'd love to see you in stylish clothes like these, so… What do you say?"

"You think it'd make him happy seeing me like this?" Sera did another turn, nibbling on her lip.

"Oh yeah," Kaito confirmed. "But it's not just that," he continued. "Don't you get tired of people thinking that you're a guy? You're a beautiful woman, Masumi-chan. You just need a little bit of a wardrobe change to make you truly shine. Don't you ever want to go out there and turn heads? Every woman wants men to look at her, doesn't she? I know that's how I feel. Would it really be so bad going out there and having no one question whether you're a girl or not?"

Masumi blinked in disbelief at her friend. "You really think I'm pretty, Kai-chan?"

"Of course I do," Kaito chuckled, giving her a half-hearted eye roll. "Because you _are_ beautiful."

"He's right," the child spoke up from where she was seated on the couch. "You should go out there and just enjoy it for once since he's gone to the trouble of bringing you designer clothes and everything."

Sera thought about it for a moment before she nodded her consent. "Alright," she decided. "Let's do this, then."

"Perfect!" Kaito sang. "Now it's time for makeup!"

"M-M-Makeup?" Masumi's mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened in horror. "Now wait just a minute!" she managed to get out before Kaito pounced, beginning to apply the foundation.

"And then we'll work on accessories!" Kaito continued gleefully.

"Wait! No makeup!" Sera squirmed and flailed, but Kaito got her to stop by reminding her that if she moved around like that, she was going to end up with a Picasso painting on her face from making him miss and draw outside of the lines. That got her to shut up and hold still.

"Besides," Kaito assured. "I'm just doing some really basic stuff. You've got the natural beauty in there hidden under a layer of dust. I'm just going to touch some stuff up and polish you until you shine."

"Just the basics," Sera repeated, taking some courage in the fact that the makeup would be minimal.

After the makeup was done, Kaito wouldn't allow Masumi to look in the mirror until after he'd added some accessories (a simple matching bracelet, necklace, and earrings) and the other finishing touches.

When she was finally allowed to look at herself, Masumi was almost blown away. She looked so different, but not in a bad way. She didn't look unnatural like some girls that she had seen wearing makeup. Kaito had done an excellent job, and Sera was super pleased with the final product.

"Wow," was all she could say as she laughed merrily. "Thank you so much, Kai-chan! You did a wonderful job!"

"But of course!" the joker chuckled, very happy with his work indeed. "You're welcome. It was my pleasure. But shouldn't you be getting down to the lobby? Don't you have a not-date in five minutes? Or were you going for fashionably late?"

Sera jumped at Kaito's words, like her heart had just received an electric jolt. "Yikes! I've gotta get out of here!" She rushed to grab her wallet and her phone off of her nightstand back in the bedroom.

With a quick goodbye to her roommate and a thank you to Kaito for all of his help (along with an apology for running out on him), Sera got under way for her not-date with Saguru.

…

Mikau: Can I just say that I love how crossdressing Kaito is canon? I love how crossdressing Kaito is canon. It makes my life a lot easier. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. It was a fun one for me to write. There was only one part that I didn't like/wasn't too sure about. I fixed it up a little more, but…oh well. What's done is done. I'll let you guys tell me how you think I did. Thanks so much for reading, guys, and thanks in advance for taking a minute to review!


	15. Boundaries

Mikau: Hello everyone! Is it Friday already? Geez. Where did my week go? I spent a lot of it translating stuff, didn't I? One day I translated the DC drama CD, and yesterday it was MK1412 theme songs. It was a lot of fun, a good challenge. Anyway, I wanted to let you guys know that I'll be starting my job next Monday, so the next update will be Wednesday night. Before we get started, I want to take a minute to thank all of my reviewers from last time: 908-03, Willysfeather, Bunnyz-chan, Detectivewriters, Kimmiko T, Orange04, and GeekyGenius! You guys are the best!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would have had to look up the station number/letter combinations for that case. I don't know what they are off of the top of my head. I know a lot of foreigners use them, and the railroad people themselves, but I just learned the kanji for the names of the stations, so… I couldn't tell you what the number of Nihonbashi or Ebisubashi was.

…

Chapter Fifteen: Boundaries

To say that Hakuba was nervous was an incredible understatement. Like saying that Kaito liked chocolate or that Nakamori Aoko could cause indelible harm to your person with a cleaning apparatus. The truth of the matter was that chocolate was Kaito's religion and Aoko was a mop assassin.

That being said, Saguru was beyond "nervous". He was even more tense than on nights when they knew Snake and his goons would likely be making an appearance at a heist. His skin felt clammy and cold and sweaty, and he was almost certain that he had a fever. He had to sit on his hands to keep from biting his nails as he waited for Masumi to descend to the lobby of the hotel.

He couldn't help but worry that things would be awkward between them. It had been fine up until then, but you never knew when something could unexpectedly go wrong. Murphy's Law and all that. His worst fear was that she'd tell him halfway through lunch, "I'm sorry, Saguru-kun. This just isn't working for me. I mean…it's kind of weird doing stuff alone with you knowing that you like me." and then get up and leave, never to contact him again.

The rejection could come at any time without provocation or warning. It was like a guillotine suspended above him just waiting to fall and destroy him at Masumi's whim.

If he survived this, he swore to himself that he would never fall in love again. This was just too terrible. It was no way to live, constantly feeling the apprehension and dread of being discarded, tossed aside. By admitting his feelings for her, he had given Masumi the power to obliterate him. He'd willingly handed his still-beating heart over for her to treasure or crush at her fancy. He was just now realizing that he had given her power over him, and he was beginning not to like it.

Love was too painful. He never wanted to experience this again. He wouldn't let someone have control of him like this a second time. Love was for strong people like Kuroba, gamblers and manipulators that knew how to play the game. Saguru was just an amateur, and he was currently losing badly.

Just as the depths of despair were beginning to swallow Saguru alive, an ever cheerful voice called out to him: "Hey! Saguru-kun! Sorry I'm late. I swear I was ready to go waaay ahead of time, like a whole hour ago, but Kai-chan said that I had to change, so…I don't look weird, do I?"

Saguru looked up and was greeted by a vision of loveliness. "M-Masumi-san," he stuttered, standing to meet her but almost tripping. "Hello! No, not at all," he rushed to assure. "You don't look strange at all. In fact…I mean…" He swallowed hard and just said it: "Masumi-san, you look very attractive. It's really a cute outfit." His face turned ruby slipper red as he elaborated, "It's a little different from your usual attire, but…but I like it. This style of dress suits you as well. It's very flattering.

"And you're not late at all," he added as an afterthought, even though she really was two minutes and fifty-two point three seconds tardy. He was starting to learn not to keep score over little things like that. What was important was that she came at all, and he was just glad to have her with him.

"Good," she sighed in relief. Her smile widened slightly as she noticed him eyeing her, appreciating her new outfit.

Kaito was right. It actually was kind of nice to have your beauty appreciated for once. Usually people only stared at her when puzzling over the old standby: the question of her gender. She wasn't aware of a time when she'd ever been gawked at because someone thought she was pretty, so, while strange and kind of weird because she really only thought of Saguru as a friend at the moment, it really was sort of cool to have someone admiring her. It made her feel kind of giddy.

With a light blush and a wide grin, she hooked her arm through his and pulled him along after her as she chuckled, "Come on. Let's go see the movie! To Roppongi Hills!"

Saguru, still a little out of it, nearly tripped a second time as he was dragged off.

Still, seeing her smiling and laughing and looking so beautiful, it made Saguru's earlier convictions about never falling in love again should this not work out vanish completely. Admittedly, there were times when love made him feel absolutely wretched, but there were also times when love left him elated. Masumi made him happy about as often if not more so than she made him feel miserable, so…maybe…maybe it was all worth it in the long run? Because he'd never been as happy before as he was now with her.

And she looked happy with him too, didn't she? Or was that only because she was always that bubbly and cheerful? Oh well. What harm was there in him pretending that he was the cause of her joy? Just for a little while at least.

With a small smile and a fragile hope, Saguru fell into step beside her. "Right. To Roppongi Hills."

…

They hopped on the train for a quick ride over to Roppongi and then had a very short walk to get to the Toho Cinema at the Mori Tower complex. They purchased their tickets and were, surprisingly, presented with a coupon for a free popcorn by a cashier that looked oddly familiar. They were taken aback once again as they entered the theatre and found it completely empty. They ended up having a private showing, the theatre all to themselves.

In all honestly, it was a little difficult for Saguru to concentrate on the movie with his crush sitting right next to him, all alone with him in the dark theatre. He'd have to return to watch the movie again by himself in order to fully appreciate the work, but watching Masumi's facial expressions (the minor widening of her eyes, the way her lips parted slightly, her bright smiles and the furrowing of her brow) and listening to her little gasps and ohs and ahs and chuckles was an experience in and of itself well worth the price of admission.

He was so tempted to do that old, clichéd trick where he pretended to stretch so that he could put his arm around her. There was no one around, no one watching. It was the perfect time to make his move…but in the end, he just didn't have the courage, and hadn't he promised he would give her time to think about his confession? That he wouldn't pressure her? He decided to be content with just enjoying her presence in the seat beside him.

After the movie, they headed up to the fifth floor of the tower to get something to eat at one of the dozens upon dozens of restaurants in and around the complex.

"You choose. Anywhere you want," Saguru urged.

"Anywhere?" Masumi echoed, a little overwhelmed by the myriad choices. "Uh…maybe just a kaitenzushi place? I don't know. Some of these places are a little expensive."

"Money is never an issue," the heir assured. "Both sides of my family are very well off, so there's no need to hold back. We could have kaiseki, for all I care. Whatever you want is well within the budget."

Sera come to a gradual stop. She bit her lip as she tried to think of the best way to tell him what needed to be said.

"Something…the matter?" Saguru looked back at her and asked in a worried tone, dread written in clear, crisp kanji characters all over his face. He was just waiting for the axe to drop.

"Yeah," she replied, trying to be gentle. "Saguru-kun, Thanks for the offer, but I'd really like to pay for my own lunch."

"It's not a problem," he insisted. "And, after all, _I_ was the one that invited _you_."

Time to be less round about. "Saguru-kun," she started a little more firmly this time. "I know that we're doing the whole dinner and movie thing, but this isn't a date. Thank you for paying for my movie ticket, but that's more than enough. I'll pay for my own lunch."

"Ah, no. I mean…" he started to flounder. "I know that. I didn't mean to act as if…"

The voice in the back of his head started to berate him and taunt him. _"Now you've done it, idiot. You got too full of yourself, got presumptuous, and now she's going to stop hanging out with you."_

"I'm sorry, Masumi-san," he apologized sincerely, even going so far as to bow at the waist at a ninety degree angle. "You're right. I'm sorry. I was just… Usually I pay whenever I go someplace with Kuroba. Sometimes he pays for himself and other times he treats me; he's not using me by any means, but…I have more money to throw around than he does, and I've got nothing to spend it on, so… I don't know what your economic situation is, Masumi-san, but I enjoy spending money on my friends so that they can have experiences that they normally wouldn't be able to. I'm sorry. That sounds rather self-righteous of me, doesn't it? Again, I apologize."

Oh. Well. Sera was left in acute surprise. Saguru's intentions turned out to be completely different than what she had originally thought.

"It's…okay," Masumi replied in slight confusion. "Actually, sorry. I'm the one that should be apologizing," she chuckled sheepishly, scratching her cheek bashfully. "Sorry, Saguru-kun. It looks like I misunderstood things. If it's really only that you like treating your friends, then I guess it's okay for you to pay for me, so long as it's not an all-the-time thing. I'd still like to go Dutch most of the time, though, and, funds permitting, maybe even pay for your half from time to time."

She bit her lip once more and smiled self-consciously. "I just don't want things to get complicated between us, and I don't want to give you the wrong idea or lead you on or anything." She looked him in the eye and told him plainly, "Look, I am serious about considering your confession, but in the meantime, I don't want things to get mixed up, 'cause I don't ever want to hurt you again. I'm really bad at establishing and keeping up boundaries, but…in this case, I'm trying hard to make sure that we both stay on the same page."

Saguru smiled at her, still looking a little guarded, slightly hesitant. "I understand completely, and I really do thank you for your efforts, Masumi-san. I think you're right, so don't be shy about pointing out to me whenever you think the water's getting muddy, and I'll be sure to do the same, agreed?"

"Yeah. Agreed," she laughed, beaming as she held out her hand to shake on it with him. "Awesome. So…you said anywhere I want to eat and money's not an object?" Masumi's grin was slowly growing more and more devious by the second.

"Absolutely. Anywhere you want," Saguru reaffirmed.

"Let's go find us a Korean barbeque place!" she cheered, heading over to the nearest directory and searching for a fitting place to eat lunch, all the while muttering, "Kimchi…kimchi…" under her breath.

Saguru couldn't help but smile. The girl sure did love her spicy food and her meat.

…

Mikau: So. Yeah. The chapter was a little shorter today, but I think some important points were touched upon. What did you think? Hopefully it was good and you liked it. Thanks for reading guys! I'll see you again soon! Wish me luck at my new job next week!


	16. Chitchat and Sweet Nothings

Mikau: Hi all! Yes, this is late. I've been busy with the new job. It's been great! Everyone's really nice, and I'm enjoying it. I just didn't realize that ten hours of my day would be eaten alive by working and commuting. And then there's the hour in the morning to get ready and the hour at night to reset things for the next day, and then there's puppy care, so…I have eight hours to sleep and three hours to do my own stuff in a day. It's…exhausting and a little frustrating. So the chapter is late, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. It's a bit of a longer one. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed: 908-03, neonquincy1217, Willysfeather, Bunnyz-chan, Kimmiko T, Detectivewriters, Orange04, and GeekyGenius!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd run out of detectives to mention at the end of the volumes just like I'm running out of clever disclaimers. Sensei probably has an assistant that finds new detectives to talk about nowadays. You know. Once the volumes got past thirty.

…

Chapter Sixteen: Chitchat and Sweet Nothings

"We moved around a lot when I was little," Sera was saying about three quarters of the way through lunch. "It was cool getting to see all kinds of places and playing with all sorts of people, but…once I started school it was kind of tough," she continued with a shrug, stuffing another heaping mouthful of kimchi into her face (in the most endearing manner Saguru had ever seen anyone stuff their face). "I had to leave my friends behind every year, and when I was older people already had their established friend groups, so everywhere I went it was always like starting from scratch."

"That must have been really hard on you," Saguru replied softly, leaning forward slightly, captivated by her words. This conversation had happened all of the sudden; out of nowhere, unbidden she was opening up to him and telling him about her past, and he was eager to listen. She was fascinating, and, truthfully, he wanted to know everything about her. "I did my fair share of moving back and forth between England and Japan when I was little, and I know how hard it was for me." And then a thought occurred to him, making him blush and smile bashfully. "Though…knowing you, you probably persevered and overcame all of the obstacles in your way, right?"

Sera chuckled sheepishly, trying to downplay her success so as not to make him feel bad about his own failure to thrive in a slightly similar situation. "Well, I wouldn't say that I really had to overcome anything, but the experience of always being shuffled around and mixed in with new people really did make me good at fitting in. I was never lonely or bullied too bad or anything. I'm usually popular and well-liked, if not a bit out there. Moving a lot just made me really good at becoming someone's best friend in three minutes or less. I'm still doing it, you know. When I first came back to Japan and transferred to Teitan, at the end of the first day I was already hanging out with Ran-chan and Sonoko-chan and on a first name basis. I've learned how to adapt." She bit her lip, grimacing slightly. "S-Sorry."

Saguru shook his head, bearing her no ill will. "There's nothing to be sorry about. I'm glad that you didn't have to go through a lot of the things that I did. Besides, there were other issues and circumstances in my case too. Our situations weren't identical, so there's no need to feel bad about doing well in the face of adversity."

She hummed in thought for a moment before adding. "Yeah. I guess you're right. And I had my big brothers and my mom with me for support too. Other than Baaya, you had to do everything on your own, and I bet that was hard on you. I know you would have done better if you'd had the kind of family I did."

"Perhaps." Saguru shrugged.

"Not that I think you didn't turn out well or that you failed or anything like that," she quickly threw out there in case he had taken her words the wrong way.

He just smiled at her and laughed, picking up a bite of the pickled vegetables. "It's alright, Masumi-san. I know…. Why exactly did your family move around a lot? Did it have something to do with your mother's work after your father passed away, or…or were you too young to know about any of that?"

She nibbled on her lip as she thought back. "You know, I don't really know what was up with us moving around like that." She chuckled self-consciously as she futzed with the necklace Kaito had given her. "Geez. I'm such a sucky detective sometimes. I'm really unobservant."

"I don't think you're a bad detective at all," Saguru cut in before she could say another bad word about herself. "Don't say things like that. If anything, you're just unpolished. You're still rather new at this, aren't you? But you have a lot of potential, Masumi-san. You're very smart, sharp, and knowledgeable. You have your heart in the right place, and you're familiar with the techniques and tools of the trade. All you lack is practice, so you shouldn't talk down about yourself and your abilities. You should be proud of what you've accomplished so far."

"Thanks, Saguru-kun," she chuckled in response, giving him a genuine, brilliant grin in return for his kind words of encouragement. "You're really good at giving pep talks. Why can't you take that ability and turn it back on yourself, use it to build yourself up?"

Saguru raised and dropped his right shoulder half-heartedly. "It's harder to find the good, admirable qualities in yourself when you suffer from such low self-esteem."

Sera pursed her lips, unsatisfied with his response. And then an idea came to her. She smiled her carefree grin once more as she popped another piece of pork into her mouth. "I guess I'll just have to do it for you, then, won't I?"

Saguru nearly laughed. "If you can find anything nice to say, by all means!"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. "You seriously don't think there's anything good about you?"

"I know that there must be some redeeming qualities about me, otherwise you wouldn't treat me like such a worthwhile person. You wouldn't waste your time on me out of charity, therefore I do have something about me that's good," he reasoned bleakly.

She gave him a deadpan stare. "Seriously, Saguru-kun?"

He held his hands out to the side, palms up and arms wide. "What can I say? I'm a ray of sunshine on a blustery winter's day, aren't I?"

"Is that really how you see yourself?" she asked, genuinely confused.

He shrugged, looking down at the meat grilling in front of them. "I think it's comparable to how women with eating disorders look into the mirror and see themselves as hideously obese even though they may only weight a hundred pounds. I've found in the course of my work that we rarely see ourselves how others perceive us."

"Yeah," she remarked softly. "'Cause I think you're pretty awesome, Saguru-kun. You're super smart, detail-oriented, kind, funny, and you're always able to keep a cool head, even during a case."

Saguru blushed, quite pleased with the praise. "Thank you for saying that…though, there was one time when I forgot myself and behaved rashly during a case." And then his pleased blush turned to one of shame as he bit the inside of his cheek in annoyance at the memory.

Sera blinked and then laughed in incredulity. "I don't believe you."

Hakuba shook his head and muttered resentfully, "Oh, I assure you it did happen once. Have you ever heard of a high school detective by the name of Hattori Heiji?"

"Oh! Yeah. Conan-kun's friend from Osaka! I met him when he came to visit with his girlfriend right after I first got back to Japan. I like him a lot. He's a real blast," Masumi recounted.

Meanwhile, Saguru tensed. "Oh? Well. Unfortunately he rubs me the wrong way. I find his way of doing things to be brash, loud, and destructive. I'll give it to him that his heart is in the right place and he's very passionate about his work, but he's simply too hotheaded for my liking."

Sera chuckled as she thought back on her memories of the Osakan detective. "Yeah, I can see that being the case. His enthusiasm is a really good quality, though, and he's hilarious. What does Hattori Heiji have to do with you being rash, though?"

Saguru grimaced. "We ended up working on the same case, he irritated me, and in my haste to solve the mystery and show him up I may have made some intuitive leaps based on incomplete evidence. I jumped the gun, but Conan-kun was there to make sure the case was solved properly, so it all ended more or less alright. It's just all very embarrassing, and I'm quite appalled at my behavior. I acted unprofessionally, and I'm truly ashamed of it. A murder investigation should never be handled so carelessly, not when someone's life and liberty are on the line. I'd like to think that I've learned from my mistake at the very least."

Masumi hummed pensively with a little half-smile clinging to her lips. "Well. I guess even _you_ get hot under the collar sometimes."

"You should see me at a Kid heist. _Everyone_ gets a little steamed then, though," Saguru chuckled.

Masumi tensed, recalling her own experiences with Kid. "Yeah," she grumbled. "If they're normally anything like the one I went to, I can imagine a lot of people get pissed."

Taking note of his companion's unfavorable reaction, Saguru quickly moved the topic of conversation along. "Well, yes, but… Still, thefts are my forte. I've solved plenty of murders before, but they're not my specialty. I think in addition to my carelessness with the investigation, another contributing factor to my failure was the culprit. I always struggle when the murderer is a woman, so…"

At this Sera raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

He nodded. "Yes. I can't help but feel sorry for and almost sympathize with them."

"Why's that?" Masumi returned, utterly confused.

"It's because women typically kill for different reasons than men do. When a woman commits murder it's because someone wronged her in the past or hurt her child or stole her husband. Women seem to strike back at people who have hurt them or made them weak or defenseless. They murder to take back the power, to gain control," he informed in a sad voice.

"Men, on the other hand, are very violent, brutal creatures. They're much more given to attacking people, bashing people's heads in in a fit of rage. There's a reason why the majority of serial killers are male, you know," he ended with a snort.

"But there are female ones too," Sera argued. "Women can be aggressive."

"It's just not as common." Saguru shrugged.

"But they exist," she insisted.

"They do," he admitted, sensing that there was something going on that he wasn't privy to. "It's just that women don't usually go breaking down doors and attacking people or jumping people in alleys and beating people up. Women don't typically go around fighting all the time and punching people and that sort of thing. You're right that there are outlying cases of women being the aggressor, but being violent is a trait found much more prevalently in males."

"Well, excuse me for being an unladylike violent woman," she snorted, shoveling another large helping of kimchi into her mouth.

Saguru blinked, lowering his chopsticks to rest on the napkin. "I…didn't say that. That's not what I meant at all. Masumi-san, just because you have the ability to defend yourself and others and the fact that you have to use that skill, doesn't make you either unladylike or violent."

Sera blinked, turning ever so slightly towards him in interest. "Hmmm?"

"Sure, you wouldn't fit into the stereotypical picture of what a lady should be, but, personally, I think that's all rubbish anyway," he snorted. "Yes, you have the habit of being a little impatient at times, and you can be a tad hotheaded and fiery even, but…you're not violent by any means, not like the people that we help to put behind bars."

"You don't think I'm violent?" she softly inquired.

He shook his head and sent her a little half smile. "Not at all. You're gung-ho, very passionate about protecting others, and you're not afraid to take action. You're very decisive and good at making a plan and taking the lead in times of conflict and crisis. Those are all admirable qualities, Masumi-san. I would never say that you were at all unladylike or violent."

"Oh," Sera replied in a mix of embarrassment and pride. Clearly she'd misheard something or had taken something he'd said the wrong way, and it was embarrassing that's she'd gotten upset over nothing. On the other hand, it was kind of nice to hear him say such nice things about her. She really did enjoy the ego stroking.

"Sorry," she finally returned with a sheepish chuckle. "I guess when you were talking about how women didn't do this or women didn't do that, I was kind of…sorry. I might be a little oversensitive about it since it feels like all of my life I've been hearing about what a tomboy I am and how I'm not a real girl and how women don't do this and women don't do that, so…I think that kind of struck a nerve and I didn't really hear what you were actually saying so much as what I expected to hear. Sorry for getting all fired up like that."

"Not at all," Saguru easily shrugged it off, feeling a lot better now that that was sorted out. "I myself have my own sore spots, so I can understand."

She raised an eyebrow at him, sitting up a little straighter. "Oh yeah?"

He squirmed under the intense stare of her marsh green eyes. "Yeah."

"Like what?" And with that she was back to happily eating her spicy pickled squid and eagerly munching on her seasoned green chili peppers.

Saguru took a bite of lotus root to buy himself some time, but he eventually had to answer. "Well, one example is that it seriously bothers me when people assume I'm a foreigner. Part of the problem is that usually people are trying to be nice to me when they speak slowly to me in either English or Japanese. The cabbies are trying to be friendly when they ask 'Is this your first visit to Japan?' or 'First time in London?'. They think they're being helpful when they tell me what the best sights to see are or where the best place to eat is. No one's trying to exclude me or tell me that I'm an outsider, that I don't belong in either one of my mother countries. Everyone's just trying to make things easier on the 'foreigner', so I'm not allowed to get properly angry. I'm not allowed to shout, 'I bloody well speak the language!' or 'No, I LIVE here!'. And so it gets rather frustrating," Saguru sighed, taking a bite of the eggplant dish along with a bit of beef.

Sera nodded in understanding. "I can see why. I'm really sorry, Saguru-kun. That's seriously gotta suck."

He did his best to shrug it off so as not to put a damper on the closest thing he'd ever had to a date with her. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault, so there's no need to apologize."

Still, she felt almost sick with guilt, for she too, when they'd first met, had thought that he was a foreigner and had spoken to him in English for his benefit. Of course, he had been majorly spacing out on her at the time, but…she still felt really bad about it.

Sensing a topic change was in order, Saguru smiled casually and remarked, "You've got some sauce smeared on your cheek."

Sera blinked, grabbing for her napkin. "Oh! Thanks. Sorry. Where?" She took an experimental swipe at her left cheek. "Did I get it?"

He chuckled softly and shook his head. "No, because there was never anything there in the first place. Sorry. I lied, but that face you were making was just too serious for the Sera Masumi I know. You shouldn't dwell on things. It'll spoil your looks."

"Smug bastard," she laughed, wadding up and tossing the napkin at him. "Well maybe I have a serious side that you're not aware of 'cause I always act like an airhead around you."

"I don't doubt it," Saguru teased with a shrug but then added, "however, you're not an airhead, Masumi-san. Being cheerful and carefree do not equate empty-headedness, and I've seen plenty of evidence of your intellect."

She looked down at her rice for a moment before glancing back up at him. "Saguru-kun, would you still like me if I secretly had a serious side, if I wasn't actually happy all of the time?"

At this he gave a soft snort. "Of course I would. In fact, I'd probably like you better. Right now I feel like you're so out of my league, it's absolutely futile. Maybe if you were less perfect, I'd be able to relax and allow myself to really fall in love with you."

"Geez," she chuckled, looking away as an embarrassed but strangely pleased smile formed on her lips. "Seriously. Now you're just saying stuff to get me to cheer up a bit."

"No. That was when I told you that you had sauce on your face." Saguru allowed himself a small, content smile as well. It was good to just be here with her, laughing and talking together normally like this. "Now I'm mostly serious."

She rolled her eyes and laughed, standing up to reach across the table and steal a stuffed cucumber from the plate in front of him. "_Seriously_. Where do you get this stuff? Are there classes I could take? Because I'm sure my fanclub would just _die_ if I stated spouting those kinds of lines like you do." Sitting back down, she smiled, but it looked slightly melancholy. "I'm not a princess, Saguru-kun, so you can drop your Prince Charming act…if it's even an act."

"I'm afraid I was born like this…or at least raised like this. The maternal side of my family is sort of…made up of extremely low-ranking nobles, so…" Saguru grimaced.

Sera's jaw dropped. "Get out."

"No, I'm afraid I'm completely serious. That's why my birth was such a scandal and my parents' marriage was necessary. Don't be impressed. Frankly, it sucks and affords me no advantages that are worth all of the cons of the matter," Saguru sighed. "However…even though you're not a princess at present, you could be in the future. After all, isn't it Cinderella that marries Prince Charming? So you don't have to be a princess in order to be with me."

"I'm gonna slug you," Sera chuckled merrily, shaking her head, even though she was kind of enjoying the banter and quirky conversation.

"Right." Saguru looked down into the dish of bean sprouts. "Sorry. I'm being too forward. I apologize. After I just said on Monday how I'd give you all the time you needed and wouldn't rush you, here I am pressuring you. I'm terribly sorry, Masumi-san."

"No. It's fine," she assured. "I'm having fun. I actually like being teased and pushed like that. It…it reminds me of my brothers. They'd always push me and press me and tease me until I nearly cried I was so angry, so I don't mind. I like us being able to tease about the fact that you like me. So long as it's not hard on you, I mean. I don't want to hurt you or rub it in that…that I don't feel the same way right now, but…if we're able to laugh and joke about it, it doesn't feel so weird. Otherwise, I get kind of anxious because I don't know how you're feeling. I don't know if I'm making things hard or painful for you. I don't want you liking me to become this big elephant in the middle of the room that we're too afraid to talk about. So keep teasing me, okay? Joke about it. Otherwise it's gonna make things weird between us, and I don't want that. You're seriously one of the best friends I've ever had, Saguru-kun. I don't get the opportunity to truly be close to people, and I think you understand what that's like, so…I don't want to lose you either, so…okay?"

He smiled gently and nodded. "Okay," he breathed. "Okay. Thanks."

She shook her head and sent him a goofy grin. "Nah. Thank you for understanding and trying to work with me. I'm the one being difficult, not falling for you."

"It's not like that," he assured, taking a bite of the sautéed mushrooms in an easy, relaxed manner. "You have to do what makes you happy, Masumi-san, not what's expected or wanted of you. Besides, I'm the strange one going and falling for you after you'd taken me out with a door."

Sera blinked and then promptly cracked up. "Seriously? Seriously, Saguru-kun? Is that why you were so out of it? You were struck speechless by my beauty? Is that it?"

"Yes," he snorted, not nearly as bothered by her uncontrollable laughing fit as he probably ought to have been. "And while I'm being clichéd, I might as well tell you that even though you're not a princess, you deserve to be treated as one."

"Oh my God!" Masumi laughed even louder, breaking down into a decisively unladylike fit of snorts and giggles that he found unbelievably adorable.

It took her a minute to get herself back under control, but when she did, she smiled brilliantly at him and wiped the tears from her eyes, saying, "Sorry, Saguru-kun. You're just…you're too perfect. I love it! You belong in a host club for sure. Thanks for that."

"Not a problem," he chuckled, returning her grin. "While I'm at it, shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

"No!" she groaned, wearing a wide smile. "No more! I can't take it." She picked up a rather large bite of fish cake and stuffed it into his mouth. "Eat."

At first Saguru blinked in surprise, but then he set about chewing in as gentlemanly a manner as he could manage, meanwhile, mentally celebrating the fact that she was feeding him now, just like a real lovey-dovey couple. He daintily dabbed his lips with his napkin and smiled smugly once he had finished. "I think we're having too much fun. Should we talk about the weather now or something?"

She shook her head, reaching across the table for the pickled radish. "Lovely weather we're having this December."

"Indeed," he replied with a smirk. "Quite mild."

…

Mikau: Well. I finally got this pretty much how I wanted it. I did a couple different versions, and this one was finally more or less what I wanted it to be. I hope you enjoyed it, and make sure to let me know what you thought/what parts were your favorite/what could have been better. We've still got a whole lot more not-date left to go, so look forward to it! I'll try to actually have the next chapter ready by next Wednesday. If not, we might have to change to weekend updates. :/ Thanks for hanging in there with me, guys! Have a great week!


	17. Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Mikau: Hi guys! I'm tired. I actually had to work pretty hard at work today. X.X Oh well. The rest of the week has been a breeze, and it's not a bad job at all. Just legal grunt work, but I'll slowly work my way up. Thanks for your patience with the chapters while I get adjusted to my new schedule. Thanks a bunch to all of the reviewers from last time, too: Sir Ross, 908-03, Kimmiko T, Detectivewriters, Guest, SilverSapphire34523 (times two), GeekyGenius, Orange04, and Willysfeather! I've also got another funny short called Hakuba Responds to News of Golden Eye Episodes, if you enjoy my humorous cracky stuff. Anyway, one with the show!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't have to make those funny little character commentaries because I feel like I would actually have some say in the direction of the anime interpretation. One would hope.

…

Chapter Seventeen: Sugar and Spice

and Everything Nice

Dessert came. And this was quite odd because they hadn't ordered any dessert. Did they even offer giant fruit parfaits at this establishment? Saguru hadn't seen it on the menu.

"I'm sorry. We didn't order this," Saguru explained to the waitress as she set the massive dessert clearly meant for two down in front of them.

"On the house for the adorable couple," the cute waitress announced with a cheery grin and an airheaded giggle.

Saguru automatically corrected her (partially in order to cement the fact into his own mind). "Thank you very much, but we're not a—"

"—It looks delicious, doesn't it, Darling?" Masumi quickly cut him off, grabbing his hand across the table and giving it a squeeze. She turned and smiled at the waitress…that looked strangely familiar. "Thank you so much. You're too kind."

"You're very welcome! You two just make such a cute pair! Enjoy!" With another giggle and a polite bow, the waitress left them to their parfait.

Saguru raised an eyebrow at his companion.

She smiled impishly, all too proud of herself.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You can let go of my hand now." His deadpan look turned into a self-satisfied smirk. "Unless you've decided to accept my confession?"

Her impish smile faded into a sheepish one as she slowly released her hold and retracted her hand. "Sorry, but you were going to turn down this exquisite work of sugary, delicious art just because we're not actually dating." She gave a little snort, looking indignant. "And then they would have had to throw it away or eat it themselves or something. It'd be a crime, so stop moping and help me eat this mountain of nirvana." She immediately began to assault the impressive mixture of fruit, yogurt, wafers, syrups, and whipped cream in front of them.

"As you wish," Saguru sighed, picking up a spoon.

He paused when he realized what this would mean, sharing the parfait with her. Once they got down to the bottom of the goblet, they'd inevitably end up sharing an indirect kiss. He wasn't mentally or emotionally prepared for an indirect kiss.

Sera cocked her head to the side at his seeming reluctance. "Problem? What? I don't have cooties or anything."

"Yes, but…Masumi-san, you do know what an indirect kiss is, don't you?" Saguru swallowed hard.

Sera's eyes widened slightly. "Oh. Is this gonna be weird for you? 'Cause I think Japanese people are just too sensitive about germs. In the states, I used to share food and stuff with my friends all the time. So long as you're not sick, it's not really a big deal." She proceeded to lick a rogue smudge of whipped cream from the side of her mouth.

Saguru gulped again. "No. It's not a big deal."

"I mean, you and Kai-chan share food all the time, right?" she remarked in an innocent tone.

Saguru nearly fell out of his chair. She was right. But how could he explain to her that Kuroba was one thing while sharing saliva with the girl he liked was another. He couldn't. Not in a way that wouldn't embarrass him to the point where he had to go live under a rock somewhere.

"You're right," he halfheartedly agreed, trying to steel himself for his disappointing first indirect kiss with her. He wished she could be more like a normal person sometimes and get worked up about something like this, but she wouldn't be half as charming if she were anything less than exactly the way she was.

"Exactly. There's nothing to it. See?" Without warning she shoved a mouthful of parfait into his mouth using the spoon she had just been licking the whipped cream off of like a predator sucking the marrow from a bone.

His entire face went red, and he felt dizzy. He could see fireworks going off, but that might have just been because he was so shocked, he was close to passing out.

She smiled and laughed at him, teasing, "Saguru-kun, you take things too seriously." And then she pulled the spoon from his mouth and proceeded to eat with it as if nothing out of the usual had happened.

He stared at her as the spoon that had just been in his mouth pressed against her lips. And then she went and wrapped her tongue around it.

She caught his incredulous gaze and raised an eyebrow at him. "Is this, like, seriously a big deal? I mean, did I miss out on something the three years I spent in America. You're looking at me like I've got a third head or something."

"Not at all," he assured. "I'll be right back." He needed to put some space between the two of them before his nose began to bleed profusely.

Once he returned from the restroom, he found the parfait a third of the way demolished and a rose nestled in Sera's hair, tucked behind her ear.

"Welcome back!" She greeted obliviously. "Feeling better? It's a little hot in here with the grills on the tables like that. Your face was turning really red. I think you just got overheated."

"…Right. Yes. Thank you." He decided to just go with it. Sometimes it was convenient that she was so dense about romance. "What's up with the rose?" he inquired as he retook his seat across from her.

She blinked and narrowed her eyes. "Isn't it from you? The waitress said that it was from a secret admirer. I seriously doubt that anyone other than you has a crush on me, so…"

Saguru grimaced. "The same waitress that brought the parfait? The one with the beautiful indigo eyes that could have been the twin of the girl who gave us that coupon for popcorn at the theatre?"

Sera blinked again. "I…didn't notice her eyes…or the girl at the theatre, but yeah. The one that brought the parfait."

Saguru nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Never mind. I know who the flower is from, so don't worry about it." Saguru would be having a serious chat with a nosey, intrusive, cross-dressing magician later.

Sera frowned, but it seemed like that was the end of the discussion, so she moved on to the other topic that was on her list of concerns. "So, hey…earlier, I'm sorry about saying that I was your girlfriend. I wasn't really thinking about your feelings, and I'm really sorry about that. You're not mad at me, are you?"

Saguru smiled warmly at her and shook his head. "It's fine, Masumi-san. You did it because you really wanted that parfait, didn't you?"

She sent him a bashful smile across the table and nodded sheepishly. "Sort of."

"Next time I'll buy you the parfait," he chuckled. "…You're just like Kuroba, thinking with your stomach."

"Geez. I'm not that bad," Sera whined, taking another large bite of the parfait. "Hey. You eat some too. Otherwise I'm gonna get fat."

"You'd still be adorable," he snickered.

She took another spoonful of the parfait and stuffed it into his mouth. "Shove it."

…

"I don't know if you have other plans for this afternoon," Hakuba began tentatively as he and Sera left the Korean barbeque restaurant. "But, if not, would you care to walk around with me for a while? They've got all kinds of shops here at Mori Tower. Have you ever been before?"

"I've been to the movie theatre before and one or two of the restaurants, but not the shops, no. I'm not really one for shopping." She shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "But it wouldn't hurt to look around. There might be some hidden treasure of a shop out there among the hundreds of others. I'm not opposed to window shopping, and I'd definitely like to hang out some more with you. Lead the way, fearless captain!"

With a chuckle and a shake of his head, Saguru did just that.

They looked around for about an hour, peeking in the windows of all of the cute boutiques and actually stopping in a little store that sold various teas.

"Look! They have free samples!" Sera squealed, dragging Saguru inside before he knew what hit him. "It smells really good in here!"

He followed her around the shop, smiling brightly as she oohed and aahed over the teapots and all of the accessories. There were handmade teacups that looked like they belonged to royalty; teapots with sagely, cast-iron dragons curled around the handle; and tins made to store the tea that were decorated with what looked like origami paper with various kimono patterns on them.

"Saguru-kun, look at this!" she demanded with wide eyes, indicating a flaming red teapot with a majestic phoenix painted on it in graceful watercolors.

"Saguru-kun, this is the best tea I've ever tasted!" she cooed a little bit later, handing him one of the small sample cups. "You've got to taste this! I'll have to come back sometime and buy some for my—" Suddenly she stopped, realizing what she was about to let slip. She smiled and corrected herself, "My roommate. I'll have to buy some for my roommate. I'd buy it now, but I don't want to carry it around the rest of the day."

"Perhaps you don't know this because you've never had a boyfriend before, but typically it's the man's job to carry around the purchases for the rest of the day in the lady's stead," Saguru chuckled. "I'd be more than happy to fill in despite the lack of the proper title."

Sera shook her head and smiled at him with an expression that read something like "Are you even real?" mixed with "You never give up, do you?"

"Thanks, Saguru-kun, but really it's fine. I'm man enough to carry my own stuff…. I'm just too lazy to do it, that's all," she laughed, tugging him out of the shop. "Come on. There's still more stuff for us to see!"

They passed by a few little clothing boutiques and looked in the windows at all of the crazy expensive wares until they came to a little shop selling accessories. Sera paused to look at a cute silver watch shaped like a charm bracelet with a heart shape for the timepiece itself.

She thought to herself that that would make a great Christmas present for Ran-chan. She realized that she'd been staring too long and too intently at the little watch when Saguru asked, "Masumi-san, when's your birthday?"

She stood up straight and frowned as she pointed her finger directly in his face. "No," she intoned with authority as if she were scolding an errant puppy. "It's not for me. I was thinking about getting it for Ran-chan. Cutesy, girly stuff like that doesn't suit me, anyway. And besides, only a boyfriend would buy a girl something like that, so don't even think about it. It's probably, like, ten thousand yen, super overpriced anyway."

"Very well." Saguru easily backed down. "But I think you're wrong about it not suiting you. I think you'd look charming with that watch adorning your wrist."

"You're ridiculous and biased." Sera shook her head and proceeded to the next store with a small smile on her face.

They walked on a little further and tried not to laugh outright at some of the items considered fashionable by the young women of Japan these days.

"If you asked me, women look best in kimono," Saguru sighed.

"It's a good thing nobody asked you," Sera snorted comically, stopping to inspect the wares of a stall selling wallets and purses, thinking that Sonoko might like a new little clutch. "Because some of us don't look very attractive at all in kimono."

Saguru frowned in disbelief. "You wouldn't be referring to yourself would you? Because I think—"

"—Yeah, yeah. I look good in everything, and I'm always cute. Blah, blah, blah. You're getting predictable, you know that?" she sighed.

"Yes, and you're rude," he returned calmly, not sounding the least bit offended.

She blinked in surprise and turned to look at him. "S-Sorry. That really was rude, wasn't it? I didn't mean it like that, Saguru-kun. I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."

He shrugged and kept walking. "I'll forgive you if you tell me why you get so irritated whenever I tell you that you're pretty. I've never met someone so adamantly against the very idea that they could be attractive."

She bit her lip and picked up the pace to catch up with him. "I think…I have issues."

"Most people do. Go on," Saguru gently urged.

"I think I'm struggling with the fact that I'm a girl," she admitted.

Saguru's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, but he kept a straight face, not allowing his acute surprise to show. "In what way?" he encouraged her to continue.

"In that…" She sighed heavily. "So I grew up with two older brothers about ten years my senior. I always hung out with them and their friends, and I've always been a tomboy. I've never wanted to take dance lessons or play dress up or play house or have tea parties or wear makeup or any of that stuff. And I'm seriously allergic to the color pink. Growing up, I was always struggling to prove myself to the guys, and when they told me I couldn't do something because I was a girl, or when they said 'Girls don't play with that' or 'Girls don't do this', it _really_ pissed me off," she explained, biting her lip in anger at the very memory.

"I've been fighting against being considered cute and girly and…and weak my whole life, so whenever you say all of that stuff about how I'm pretty and adorable…okay, I'll admit that part of me is seriously happy, but…there's a part of me that gets irritated because the things you're saying come out sounding like 'You're weak and belong in the kitchen and need a man to protect you because you're not smart enough to do anything on your own'." She sighed and shook her head, a conflicted look etched into the features of her face. "At least…that's what it sounds like in my head. That's…pretty warped, isn't it?"

Saguru came to a stop, taking her hand and pulling her over to sit down on a nearby bench. "It sounds like this isn't really about me. I mean…do you really think that I mean any of that when I tell you you're pretty?"

She shook her head even as she hung it in shame. "No," she mumbled. "And I know that. I know that you respect me and know that I'm able to take care of myself and you definitely treat me as an equal, so…I'm sorry. It's just I'm so used to fighting against guys and struggling to prove myself that I'm just not really able to accept your compliments for what they are."

"I understand," he replied as he gently patted the back of her hand.

"How the hell can you just say 'I understand'?" she laughed bitterly. "I just told you that I hear you say 'You're pretty' and I consider it an attack on my self-image. That's not normal, Saguru-kun."

"It's not common, but I wouldn't say that such feelings are abnormal." Saguru shrugged. "It seems to me that you're insecure, and that's partially society's fault for trying to say 'this is what a woman is, and this is how a woman should act. These are the things a woman should do, and these are the things a woman can't do'. It's natural that you'd be up in arms if someone attacked your self-concept, and it's understandable that you're the way you are after fighting against stereotypical womanhood for so long. You're fine. You just have to unlearn some things."

"Like what?" She looked at him intently, seriously considering his words.

"For instance, in your mind, beauty and strength are a dichotomy, but that's not true, is it? I suggest you take a good look at your own friend Mouri Ran-san. From what I've seen of her, she's very much the picture of ideal wife and mother from the way she takes care of her father and Conan-kun. She's kind, gentle, fashionable, attractive, and also capable of smashing a cinderblock to smithereens. She has her extremely girly side, but she's also a very strong, smart, capable woman, isn't she?"

Sera thought about it for a moment before nodding. "…Y-Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Ran-chan really is like that, isn't she?"

"See? Being pretty in no way detracts from her strength and power. Indulging in her cute, girly side in no way robs her of her competence and self-respect. And you could be like that too, you know?" he baited. "You're every bit as pretty and strong as she is. You don't need to shy away from your feminine side any longer out of fear of losing people's respect and acknowledgement. If anyone gives you trouble or teases you for dressing up or wearing makeup or taking cooking lessons, just bend a steel pipe in half in front of them. That should shut them up."

He stood up and smiled down at her. "Okay?"

She nodded, allowing herself to grin at him as well. "Yeah. Thanks. I always end up learning all sorts of crazy stuff about myself when I'm with you. I hadn't realized that all of this time I was mentally equating wearing a dress, falling in love, and even just being a girl with being weak." Her smiled turned sheepish as she scratched at her cheek and laughed nervously. "I should know better than that. I should give my own gender more credit, 'cause I know how strong chicks are firsthand."

"Exactly," Saguru chuckled, holding out his hand in an offer to help her up. "That's just something that you'll have to work on."

Just as she had on Monday night when they'd all gone to the bowling alley, instead of taking his hand and accepting his help, Masumi gave him a high five and stood up on her own.

Saguru let a tiny sigh escape, but he smiled despite his wasted efforts because he truly hadn't expected anything less from Sera.

"Thanks, Saguru-kun," she repeated once more in genuine gratitude as she lead the way to another interesting shop selling items with outrageously high price tags.

"You're very welcome." He tagged along obediently, smiling that deliriously in love grin that most young men get once they've found the woman that they wish to spend the rest of their lives with.

"And for your information, before I was so rudely interrupted, I was about to tell you that you'd look gorgeous in a kimono…like a yakuza boss," he snickered.

She turned around and glared at him, puckering her lips like a duck. "You suck."

"And yet you still enjoy my company. What does that say about you?" He smirked.

She was silent for a moment in thought before she announced sadly, "I suck."

"I think you're wonderful," he teased.

"Shut up," she grumbled before she realized what she was doing. With a blush she replied. "…What I meant to say was…thank you."

"You're welcome," Saguru replied, patting her a tad condescendingly on the head. "See? Was that so hard?"

"Yes," she snorted.

"Should I have said 'I think you're wonderful, but that fact does not detract from my respect for you'?"

"Now you just sound sarcastic," she chuckled.

Saguru raised his hands to the heavens in frustration. "Good Lord, what does she want from me? How can I make her happy?"

"Just keep being an awesome friend," she laughed heartily, playfully elbowing him in the ribs. "But you still suck. Now hurry up. There's a shop I want to go into."

"Bossy," he called after her as she trotted off, but he was once again wearing that crazy in love expression.

…

Mikau: I'm really, really happy with this chapter. So much so that I'm worried that it's actually not as good as I think it is. I wish I could just get some confidence in my writing already. You people wouldn't keep coming back chapter after chapter if I were a bad writer. ^.^; Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for reading, guys!


	18. The Mock Turtle and the Griffin

Mikau: Hi, gang! Happy Friday! I hope you all had a fabulous week! Me? No. Not really. ^.^; I was sick, and I still had to work hard anyway, but I've got a three-day weekend coming up. Super excited for that. I've been working on the karaoke chapters, and they've been going well, so get excited for that; they're coming up soon. I've also been working on a second chapter for A Light in the Darkness, so keep your eyes open for that. Also, speaking of ALD, voting for Poirot Café's writing competition is open now through Sunday, so make sure to get your vote in for your favorite story! Also, thanks so much to all of my reviewers from last time. I know there was something up with the site, so maybe not all of you got to review, but thanks a bunch to those that did: Kimmiko T, Bunnyz-chan, GeekyGenius, 908-03, Willysfeather, Detectivewriters, and Orange04!

Disclaimer: May I reiterate that if I owned it, the whole Hakuba situation that A-1 has going on would not have happened? Seriously. We'll see on Saturday, I suppose.

…

Chapter Eighteen: The Mock Turtle

and the Griffin

"What store did you say you wanted to go into?" Saguru called after Masumi as she trotted ahead.

She spun around and grinned widely at him. "It's just ahead. Kai-chan said that they sell a lot of clothes like these ones that he brought for me, so I want to check it out and see what the prices are like. These clothes are super comfy, so I might be interested in getting some more."

"What's the store called?" Saguru frowned as they turned the corner and a certain shop came into view. He had a bad feeling about this.

"That's it right there," she chuckled. "Isn't that a funny name? 'Mock Turtle'?"

"It's a character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Saguru replied through a grimace. "The Mock Turtle appears in a scene with the Griffin. My mother thought it was amusing, so she named the little clothing chain 'Mock Turtle'."

Sera froze as the smile slowly faded from her face and was replaced by shock and apprehension. She had known that the store sold Helen Griffin's designs, but… "This is your mom's store? Like…she owns the franchise?"

Saguru nodded. "Yes. In order to sell her designs in Japan, she created several clothing chains. She has about four different boutiques each targeting a different audience. Mock Turtle, I believe, carries some of her more…fanciful work. They do have a small section of arguably normal outfits, though, so that's probably what Kuroba was referring to."

"You know, we don't have to go in, if you don't want," Sera backed down considerately. "I'll just come back some other time. Let's see if we can find a bookshop or something, why don't we?"

"Because you really do want to look around," Saguru replied with a shrug, nonchalantly entering the store.

"Wait!" Sera called, scrambling in after him. "It's really okay if you don't…" She trailed off quickly upon her senses registering all of the vibrant colors and off the wall patterns of the clothing on the racks.

The majority of the outfits were fantastic (in the elves and dragons meaning of the word). A lot of them looked like they were straight out of some fae princess's closet. The other fourth of the clothing seemed to have some kind of pirate theme going on. And the color schemes were outrageous.

"Wow," Sera breathed. "This place is awesome. In a crazy, ridiculous kind of way, I mean."

"Isn't it? Mother decided that she wanted to compete with Alice and the Pirates here in Japan, so…though, I have to say that that brand isn't quite so…well. You know. I believe Mother got carried away. The audiences don't seem to be exactly the same," Saguru sighed.

"Saguru-kun, I can come back on my own later. You don't have to force yourself on my account," Sera insisted, reluctant to enjoy herself at her friend's expense. "I mean…you don't get along with your mother very well, do you?"

Saguru shrugged, moving towards the back of the store, forcing her to follow if she wanted to continue being a part of this discussion. "It's really not a big deal. I'm not particularly mad at her or anything. I don't hold a grudge. It's more like…we're strangers that anything else. She was never really around, never really a _real_ mother, so…"

"That's really sad," Masumi whispered, her face clouding over in sympathy. "You briefly mentioned that you weren't really close with your parents before and stuff like that, and I knew you guys didn't really get along super well, but…you kind of just told me the bare minimum about the subject before brushing it off like it wasn't a big deal, so…I don't think I really understood what your childhood was like until Monday when I saw what your house was like…those scars on your arms. I…" She looked away and squirmed awkwardly. "I'm sorry. I don't know where I was going with this. I shouldn't have said anything, especially about such a touchy subject. I…I'm sorry, Saguru-kun."

Saguru stopped at a rack near the back of the store and turned to look at her, considering her before he spoke. "We're just having all sorts of soul-baring discussions today, aren't we?" he chuckled, looking genuinely calm and at peace with the subject. "Shall we talk about my relationship with my parents then?"

Sera raised an eyebrow at him in suspicion. "Are you really okay with it? I mean…it's not a sore subject?"

Saguru shrugged, pulling a cute dress off of the rack and holding it up next to his crush. "It used to be worse when I was a child and wondered why my parents didn't love me and what I had done wrong and all that. It hurt a great deal when I tried so hard to be good and do everything right and never make mistakes in order to earn their love, but…now that I'm older and understand these things better, I know that it wasn't my fault. I know that I'm not the one that ruined my family and tore it apart. I'm able to understand now that I'm not un-loveable just because my parent weren't able to love me. Kuroba…kind of helped with that. Honestly, he's still helping. I'm a work in progress, but…I do my best not to let it bother me anymore. Do you like this dress? I think it's a lovely color coupled with your skin tone."

Sera frowned intensely at him, the beginnings of tears starting to well in the corners of her eyes. She shook her head. "Saguru-kun, sometimes you say things that make me want to beat people up for you. It's…it's good that you know that it's not your fault now, but… Geez, sometimes you say stuff, and I just want to give you a hug and ruffle your hair, you know?" She bit her lip, holding back angry, bitter tears for his sake as well as the urge to actually launch herself at him and hug him until it was all okay.

Saguru blushed and smiled happily as he put the dress back on the rack. "Thank you, Masumi-san. I may have glossed over all of this before with half-truths and dismissive comments, but…I've decided to be honest with you from now on. I mean, because real friends talk about those kinds of things, and I know I don't have to worry about you freaking out and rejecting me." At least he was pretty confident on that one.

Truthfully, it was a daily struggle for him to convince himself that she wasn't going to run out on him over every little thing. Slowly but surely it was getting easier, though. With every passing day he had more and more confidence in those words. After all, she hadn't fled when she'd found out that he'd been a cutter. That was his deepest darkest secret after the fact that he was in love with her. She knew the worst, so what reason did she have to leave now?

"Of course I'm not gonna reject you," Sera snorted, shaking her head with a fond smile. "Haven't I told you before that you're an awesome person?"

"Yes, but I disagree with you," he returned in a teasing tone, getting out a cute pink and white camisole before quickly exchanging it for one in yellow and white after remembering the conversation they'd just had about Sera Masumi's rationally irrational loathing of the color pink. "Masumi-san, I am an ugly, broken human being. There's nothing awesome about me. I, however, am in luck because _you_, Masumi-san, are so awesome that I have no doubt that you'll be able to accept me no matter what I say or reveal to you."

She took the camisole from him and admired it before checking the price, having a mini heart attack, and sadly putting it back on the rack with its equally overpriced friends. She could buy dinner for the price of that shirt!

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly before she replied, "Well, I agree with you on about half of that. I am pretty cool, if I don't say so myself, and you're my friend, so I'm willing to accept pretty much anything you tell me other than you secretly worship the mashed potato god or you're actually the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper, come to avenge your predecessor and finish his mission. Pretty much anything else will fly."

She moved a little further towards the back of the shop as she spoke, grabbing a lime green shirt and inspecting it before checking the price and sighing in defeat.

"You're wrong about one crucial thing, though," Sera informed, looking up at him and meeting his gaze.

"Oh? And what's that?" Saguru raised an eyebrow in interest and curiosity.

"You're not ugly," she insisted with the most serious expression. "Sure, you're broken, but we're all broken one way or another. We can be fixed, though, if people care enough to try to put us back together," she replied encouragingly. "I think you're a beautiful person, Hakuba Saguru, and I want to keep being there for you. After all, it would be hypocritical of me to toss you by the wayside for your rough spots when you've always been so nice and understanding to me. You've always been a real friend to me, so…go ahead and tell me about your parents, if you don't mind. I'd be happy to listen and be a real friend to you too."

Saguru thought about it for a second before he smiled softly and nodded. He made some pretense of shifting through the racks as he began his story. "Helen Griffin was the seventeen year-old, wild, fun-loving, spoiled daughter of a baroness and her husband. Hakuba Akihiko was twenty-one, the son of the police commissioner and quickly rising through the ranks of the Tokyo PD himself. He had been spending the holiday in England when he met Helen, and a flirtation began between the two. It was nothing serious, merely a mutual diversion for both of them to engage in."

Saguru sighed and absentmindedly checked the price of a fairytale ball gown that looked like it was straight out of Cinderella. Shaking his head, he continued, "Two weeks later when Helen realized that she was pregnant, she planned on going to a clinic and getting rid of the child. Her faithful governess learned of the girl's designs and went straight to the baroness, a devout Christian. The baby was saved from one cruel faith and thrust into yet another, and Helen and Akihiko were forced to marry, though neither really cared for the other. Helen resented the child that she was forced to carry. She was still but a child herself. She wasn't ready to be a mother, and so she reacted the only way she knew how: she threw a fit until she got her way. Her governess was designated to care for the baby after its birth."

Sera clenched her fists, unable to make any pretense of shopping while she learned of her friend's past, unlike Hakuba himself who was browsing the racks without really seeing the outfits. He was doing it more as a distraction, something to do with his hands…so that he didn't have to face her and see what kind of expression she was wearing. It wasn't pity like he expected, though. Masumi looked more hurt than anything, and after that her chief emotion was anger. She wanted to do something, slap some sense into Saguru's parents, make them see what a wonderful son they had.

Unaware of his companion's feelings, Saguru continued with his tale. "Meanwhile, Akihiko tried. He made frequent trips to England to visit his wife and child, but Helen held a grudge against him for getting her into this mess in the first place. Things were strained between the two, and it was soon decided that they should move together to Japan as a family where Akihiko's job was. Baaya did most of the child rearing while Helen and Akihiko fought regularly. Soon it became apparent that things were not working, and they separated. The child moved back and forth between England and Japan throughout his young life, never knowing where he belonged or why his family wasn't normal like others…."

"Saguru-kun…" Masumi whispered, not knowing what else to say. There was nothing she could really, no words to express what she was feeling. Still, she tried. "I'm probably going to end up saying something weird or wrong, but…you must of been really sad and lonely, weren't you? God, that must have been tough. No wonder you were so unhappy, so fed up, so tired."

As she spoke he looked at her in quiet awe because on her face, in her eyes, in the tone of her voice, there wasn't an ounce of pity. She didn't feel sorry for him like some might. She didn't look down on him as a poor, helpless, pitiable existence. She was angry and hurting on his behalf. She looked like she wanted to cry because she felt empathy for him, feeling his suffering as if it were her own. But she didn't pity him, and that was amazing because he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him. He didn't want anyone's pity or generosity. He wanted to be looked at as a human being, told that his past had sucked, and assured that things were different now, and that he wasn't any less of a person or even a man because bad things had happened to him. He hadn't wanted her to say "Poor Saguru-kun" and then walk on eggshells around him, afraid to bring things up. He had wanted her to acknowledge what had happened and then move on, and that seemed to be what she was doing.

He smiled fondly at her as she finished stumbling over her awkward reply. "Don't worry about it. Though, I really appreciate that, by the way. Now let's talk about something else, something fun and light-hearted. All day we've just been having heavy discussions, and it's exhausting. We're here today to have fun, aren't we? And while it's good to have these discussions eventually, I think we're doing too much all at once. It's going to drain us. I decided to be honest with you, but I think there's such a thing as too much honesty, wouldn't you agree? Let's try to have a cheerful conversation now, shall we?"

Sera smiled and relief and nodded. "Yeah, but, for what it's worth, I _am_ having fun, and I like learning about you, coming to understand you better. I think you're right, though. We need to talk about wrestling or video games or school or something not so serious," she chuckled. "But…I do want to thank you for telling me about your parents and, well, everything you've shared with me today. I want you to know that I won't tell anyone, so you really can tell me anything. And you don't have to be afraid that I'll treat you any differently because of anything you say, so…okay? Are we cool?"

"_You_ may be cool, Masumi-san, but I am _definitely_ a geek," Saguru teased, reaching out and giving her hair a good tussle.

"Hey!" she hissed, batting his hand away even as she laughed loudly.

Retracting his hand from her personal space, he resumed the proper decorum and replied, "All joking aside, though, I would really appreciate that. I like our relationship the way that it is, and I wouldn't want it to change, so thank you in advance. I'm sincerely grateful for your friendship, Masumi-san."

"Aw, you're making me blush," Masumi giggled, swatting his words away. "But you mean other than the fact that you want me to be your girlfriend, you don't want things to change, right? Don't worry. I feel the same way," she laughed, giving him a good smack on the back like any normal male friend might.

"Exactly," Saguru sighed, not sure if he should feel happy or frustrated or what exactly about his situation.

He decided to change the subject instead of dwelling on things too much. "Right. Speaking of lighter subjects, come over here. I want to show you something." Saguru motioned for her to follow as he cut through the various racks until they came to the opposite wall of the store.

Masumi suddenly found herself in Wonderland. She was surrounded by many different varieties of blue dresses and white aprons. Some were cutesy and fairytale-like with soft, intricate lace and pleated skirts. Others appealed to a more mature audience with fishnet tights, skirts that didn't even reach mid-thigh, and necklines that regrettably showed more cleavage than Masumi even had in the first place. Other Alice outfits looked to be patterned after the American Mcgee crowd, covered in blood splatter and ripped in places.

In addition to the various interpretations of Alice's signature outfit, there were dozens of other costumes inspired by all of the other popular characters. There were Queen of Hearts costumes that ranged from slutty to regal, shirts with the designs of playing cards adorning them, and even a frilly white dress decorated to look like the picture of the White Rabbit in his formal trial ware.

On the wall next to the outfits there was a display showcasing all of the various accessories that went with the costumes. There were several different kinds of animal ears: White Rabbit, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Dormouse, and even piglet ears for the Duchess's son. There were hats, nonsensically big top hats with a little card nestled along the brim reading "In this style 10/6". They also carried gloves, a fan, and the White Rabbit's pocket watch. It was really quite the collection of paraphernalia that would make any Alice fan squee in joy before promptly passing out.

Saguru tugged her over to the left of the accessories wall, to where there were several pictures of people modeling the numerous outfits. "Look at this one." He pointed to the picture of the Mad Hatter, or, at least, the model dressed up and posed like the Mad Hatter.

"It's the Hatter?" She felt like she was missing something. "What about it? It's a pretty awesome picture with the outfit and all of the crazy tea pots and stuff. They really went all out with the setting and the props."

"Look closer," Saguru urged, suppressing a chuckle at whatever the secret joke was.

Sera frowned and leaned in to inspect the photo. The Hatter was seated at the head of the dining table with a great spread of cups, tea pots, sugar bowls, saucers of cream, and plates of various sweets set out before him.

He was holding out a cup that had been sliced clear in half in his left hand, and the text up above to the right read, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

He was wearing dark, rich mahogany-colored coat with an equally lovely brown hat. He was pulling it down at the brim so that it hid his face except for a devilishly wild, undeniably insane grin that Sera swore she had seen somewhere before. It irked her subconscious for some reason, but at the same time she found it dashing and charming. Definitely familiar.

Suddenly it hit her. "Oh my God! Is that _Kaito_? That's Kai-chan, isn't it?" she gasped, turning to Saguru in utter disbelief and a fair amount of amusement.

Saguru nodded. "He and my mother are friends. I took him to London to meet her once. I have a feeling that he was going to have a talking with her, stand up for me and give her what for and all that, but…once he met her, they became fast friends."

"How could Kai-chan be friends with her?" Sera gasped, amazed and slightly offended at Kaito's betrayal. "Though, Kaito seems like the type that can make friends with anyone, so… Maybe it's not _that_ surprising after all, but… I can't believe that Kai-chan would befriend your mother like that." Masumi seemed far more put out by that fact than Saguru himself had ever been.

He shrugged, turning his gaze to the wall of whimsical accessories. "It's really not all that farfetched. I mean, my mother isn't a bad person. She's just a lousy mother. Sure, that's a fact that has caused me considerable pain, and she really should take some responsibility for her actions, but… Like I told you, she was a child herself when she had me, and a very spoiled, naïve child at that. Some of the blame falls to her own parents for not raising her properly, but…sometimes I think that if I looked at things from my mother's point of view, she might be more of a sympathetic character. There are very few truly satanically evil people in this world, Masumi-san. If you look at things from where the other person is standing, the situation ceases to be black and white. There aren't villains and protagonists in life, so I find it hard to really hold much against my mother. I'm sure that from her standpoint she was a victim as well. She suffered, she struggled, but now…she's happy with her French chef and her Swiss masseuse and her Italian tennis instructor and whatever other boy toys she's added to her harem since the last time I was back in London. Who am I to take away from her happiness?"

"Her _son_," Masumi retorted hotly. "Geez. I can't believe you, Saguru-kun. Why the hell are you such a doormat? Stand up for yourself a little. Get angry! You have every right to hate your parents and go all emo and hold a grudge and milk people for sympathy and play your cards for all they're worth. There are people that would, you know. A lot of people would."

She stopped to take a deep, calming breath. "Why do you have to be such a good, forgiving, understanding person all of the time? Why are you such a masochist?" she demanded.

He smiled and laughed at her. "Because. I decided a long time ago that that kind of behavior was loathsome and truly pathetic. Believe me, I _do_ have my periods of angst, but I try not to let myself wallow. I'd feel ugly and like myself even less if I acted that way. I take refuge in being the bigger person, being mature and taking the high moral ground."

She shook her head and sighed loudly. "Stop being so perfect, Prince Charming."

"I'm far from perfect, my sweet Cinderella." He laughed outright at the very idea.

"Nuh-uh. Stop that." She clucked her tongue at him and wagged her finger in his face. "None of that. Go back to telling me what all this Kaito and your mother stuff is about. Explain what Kai-chan is doing dressed as the Mad Hatter."

"As you wish," Saguru replied with a courteous bow. "Kuroba and my mother are friends, and she _loves_ dressing him up and taking him shopping. He's the daughter that she never had, and the fact that he wears boys' clothes as well as girls' clothes is a godsend to her. I think she's gotten to the point where she actually wants a child now, at least to dress up anyway. She's only thirty-five. Anyway, she dresses up Kaito.

"He's actually modeled for her a couple of times. He doesn't really want his face to get out there to the public, so whenever he does model while dressed in male clothes, his face is always obscured or hidden, but if you'll look over here to your right…" Saguru lead her over to where the various interpretations of Alice's outfit were hanging and pointed to the pictures above the clothing.

"No way," Sera gasped, mouth hanging open as she stared at the three photos featuring a model posing as Alice in the super slutty costume; the more standard, traditional outfit; and the bloodstained, guro dress.

"_That's_ Kai-chan?!" She continued to gape, admiring the way that the dresses hugged her friend's curves and showed off his self-confidence. "Damn. He's hot! And, geez, look at that rack! I can't believe this. He's totally stacked! How the hell did he get those to look so real?!"

Saguru rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I'm sure that I have no idea. These are not things that I wish to think about."

Once she'd gotten over her astonishment, Masumi smiled sadly at the pictures and let out a long, soft sigh. "Man. So that's the competition, huh?"

"Competition for what exactly?" Saguru raised an eyebrow, but it soon became apparent that he would not have his answer.

The melancholy smile persisted on Sera's face as she muttered to herself, not loud enough for him to discern, "Maybe Kudo-kun would pick you over me after all, Kai-chan. It looks like you've got the best of both worlds going on."

Sensing that the photos of Kaito were no longer having the desired effect of bringing levity to the atmosphere between them, Saguru suggested that the move on.

"What would you like to do now?" Saguru asked as they exited Mock Turtle. "Is there anything in particular that you wanted to do or see? Did you want to window shop some more, or—"

Saguru was rudely interrupted as a pigeon swooped down out of nowhere and nearly flew into them. Once the threat was averted and things had settled, they found two tickets to the art museum lying on the pavement at their feet.

"Crazy," Sera laughed at what seemed to be magic or evidence of a higher power.

Saguru knew better, and he would be having a talk with his bestest best friend later about impersonating customer service workers in order to stalk Saguru on what was, for the last time, NOT a date. There would be a lengthy discussion about not putting makeup on his doves in order to make them appear to be pigeons and not using aforementioned stealth doves to dive-bomb Saguru for the purpose of delivering tickets.

_However_, he'd let it slide for now seeing as how Masumi really seemed interested in visiting the Mori Art Museum.

…...

Mikau: Haha. Yeah. Well. I hope you liked the chapter. I kind of wrote it in the wee hours of the morning, so either it's inspired or total garbage. I'll let you decide. Thanks so much for stopping in to read! Don't forget to leave a review on your way out the door! See you next Friday, guys!


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